Desire For a Star
by Valerianna
Summary: When facing her lifeless body, Uchiha Sasuke wished that Kami could have told him when he first saw Sakura: "Look, Sasuke, it's the piece of rib that was ripped from your body."
1. Chapter 1

A/N: As everyone knows, this is a rewrite for "A Cup of Rain". Same plot, but with many different twists. I'm going to drastically change the story, so that my previous readers won't find it boring- and I'm certain the story will only get better. I will try my best to maintain my previous writing style.

Many of you might notice the immediate and most prominent change at the very beginning of this chapter. Yes, it's relevant. Please bear with me

A fair warning: the story itself will be very cheesy. I'm talking about cliché to the point of making you cringe... But please don't undermine its depth. I will try to create some... in later chapters. Way later.

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Chapter 1

I.

It's important to note that this story does not take place in an alternate universe.

This story simply set in a time parallel. Parallels that uncannily resembles each other. There would be no OC, except for a few particular henchmen names.

The most important of all, it's a love story of choice, memory, and what it means to be moral.

II.

There are times when Sakura slows down and think about her life and wonder if this is where she was supposed to end up.

Sitting on the curb with a box of her office supplies, staring into the busy streets with cars rushing by.

People were tossing her weird looks, and she ignored them all. But she's self conscious-oh yes, she's very self conscious. She's wearing an office mini skirt, nude pumps and a white blouse. All in all she looks like an average white collar worker. But the difference is, that all other white collar workers are not getting sacked at the moment and sitting along the streets with her.

She was lost on what to do.

Her life had sucked. After finding out that her fiancé was cheating on her with a man, she began to lose it. The wedding is off, of course, and her family couldn't be happier.

"Sakura, dear, I knew he wasn't a good guy for you." Her mother started, "Look at him, the man has a fashion sense of a five year old."

Sakura knew it was wrong, however, as her fiancé was a terrific guy. He has parents who are practically drops of heaven. They were famous, successful, and they give birth to an angel. He was kind-hearted, naturally blunt but caring, and ambitious and hardworking all rolled into one. Her fiancé seemed to have been born under the sun, with rays emitting from is every pore and lighting up everyone close to him.

So it didn't really come as a complete shock that he is attracted to someone who is cold and dark.

And it just so happens his lover was also a man.

She has always considered herself as a "yaoi" girl. She loved when men get together... in stories, mangas, or movies. But in actuality, when it happened to you? She wants to take a knife and hack up that cheating son of a bitch.

But no, she's not in a position to. No...

Sakura wondered if she should explore trans as a solution.

Today started off horrible. She was late, had a fight with a rude woman on the subway, and her manager called her into his office, saying his boss' boss needed to see her.

Long story short, she worked as a lowly translator, and she went up all the way to the top floor where the executives are, and discovered her ex-fiancé's lover is actually her boss' boss's boss...

And she lost her job.

She was only an intern; she paid her way through life by living off of her fiancé and his amazing family background. Now her fiancé is her ex-fiancé, she literally had and will have nothing in this city. Like many other women, she made the foolish mistake of thinking her relationship would last forever. Now her engagement was over with, she's on the streets with nowhere to go and a box full of her crap that she won't ever use.

After debating whether to continue on sitting the streets and scare the pedestrians or getting up and moving on with her worthless life, she chose the latter.

She spent some time trying to getting up, as it's hard to do so with her mini skirt on. But what happened next made her curse aloud -because when she was half crouching half standing, she saw a dog.

That's right, a dog.

A golden retriever crossing road while waggling its tail-and it was very happy, because it saw a ball bouncing along the streets.

It did not occur to her why was there a rubber ball bouncing on a busy street with cars flying by, and it did not occur that there was absolutely nothing she could do for the dog, or for the ball, in fact. But it did occur to her that she need to race into the middle of the street for whatever goddamned reason she deemed to be worthy to get onto the streets for. Be it morals or self comfort, it was all she has left of the world.

And that's exactly what she did- race onto the streets.

Now, let's just say. If Sakura did not race onto the streets trying pathetically to save that dog, this whole story would've all gone very differently, and perhaps it will even have a happier ending. She will stay within a world full of technology, flying cars and nuclear weapons. She will enjoy the modernity of our wonderful world, and its threats along with the pressures of society.

But in order for this story to move on-she did not stay put. She raced in the middle of the street, and she was hit by a truck.

'It cannot get more fictional than this'-was Sakura's last thought before she saw the van crushing down upon her. She thought her life was a big joke and a series of turns that could only happen at the beginning or romantic comedies, and they all headed down towards the path of tragedy.

She firmly believed... and she was right. Sort of.

Because when she woke up, she wasn't in the modern world anymore. She has the knowledge and the memory of a twenty-first century, but she does not have the knowledge or the memory of how to survive in a world with flying ninjas and talking dogs.

But she got there, and her story started.

III.

Team Seven has always been... Team Seven.

The team itself composed of a loud mouthed boy, Naruto. His signature move is to smile and say he's going to be the Hokage.

Another boy, a quiet one, whose family was brutally massacred by his kin, and he swore to take revenge.

A sensei, who also experienced trauma, but lived through it and took care of the three kids he led to the best of his ability.

And lastly, a girl. A girl with pinkish hair and romantic fantasies. A girl whose biggest goal in life is to marry the kid with the emo problem.

Haruno Sakura existed in this world.

She also existed in twenty-first century.

But because of the latter Sakura was in a car crash, they switched places.

Now that is to say the Sakura in the shinobi world didn't get herself into any trouble. In fact she got into so much shit that it's almost impossible to lift her out. She was so depressed and desperate that she wanted the easy way out. She wanted to find something that could end her right away-and she thought jumping off a cliff, is perhaps the most romantic way to go. Especially, jumping off a cliff in front of someone that you knew and loved.

And that's how Sakura came to being. She woke up on the side along the river, and her clothes are drenched. She was somehow dropped into the river-she doesn't remember anything that has happened prior to her almost drowning-and she doesn't know anything about this world.

Her first thought was... she was very surprised that such place still existed in Japan.

It was green. Green everywhere.

The sun was so bright! It was so bright that the rays bouncing off the leaves are shining in her eyes. She tried to get up, but she found some part of her hand was broken. Not only was it broken, her wrist swelled up to twice its size, and it was completely red.

Sakura, having born in a hospital, has never experienced pain without painkillers, wailed.

And then she was reminded the circumstances of her accident, and she cursed that dog.

Having no knowledge of this world, she doesn't have the capacity for pain. She never did, and she cried and cried. She cried for the next ten minutes, and then realized obviously no one is going to sooth her and call her an ambulance, as this place is almost... entirely... civilization free.

She moved on. She stood up from her patchy moss pad in the middle of the forest and decided to walk on. If she cries anymore, she's going to dehydrate and die. She didn't have water, food, or shelter. Even with basic knowledge of the twenty-first century, she knew that she must move on to survive. And she's nothing if not surviving.

So she picked up a random branch, tossed it up in the air, and walked the way where it was pointed to.

And that made all the difference.

IV.

So Sakura doesn't actually know what this world... contains of. Her knowledge is basically useless. She was taught how to survive in a complete different than this. She went to seventeen years of schooling, and the last five year or so she has majored in literature. Books, novels, cultural texts. Things that are pretty much useless in the wilderness. Except, maybe, books on how to survive in the wild. But at this point, having never had practice in anything, she really doesn't know how that will go. Especially since she walked and walked and walked through the forest, and as it turned out-she walked along the edge of the forest, and what was ahead of her is a vast plane of desert.

Desert frightened Sakura.

Heck, anything vast and plain frightened Sakura. She's a female who came from a place with internet. She looked down at herself and saw that she was dressed in simple pants and a long shirt that seemed to have made out of some expensive material, but were so worn and torn that it looked like rags. It did strike her as odd to her that after this car crash, it seemed that she was not in her own environment anymore, or at least, her own niche. She has never seen this place in her life, and she had doubts if she is still in Japan-or Asia, for that matter. She has the exact same body though. There's a slight scar on the left side of her ear. There's a mole right on the right side of her abdomen, right beneath her belly button. How did she get dressed in this drag? And why is it that she felt so awful she wanted to puke and faint at the same time? How was her wrist swollen?

Son of a bitch, it hurts like hell.

She debated on whether to go into the desert or stay where she was, on the edge of her forest. It looks awfully hot out there without shades. But there is nothing behind her, and she had an urgent need and intuition to continue- to move forward.

She had nothing left anyways.

So she took her first step into the desert.

That was a mistake... It was a total mistake. Because Sakura took a full step into the sand and immediately triggered some sort of booby trap that she doesn't know about or could even comprehend. It seemed that there are transparent wires tripped her, and she fell down flat on her face. Before she could get up, she was pushed down by various clicking noise making robots of some kind, and one even sat on her body and pinned it to the ground.

She tried to lift her head, but something was holding it down. Her limps are tightly bound together by transparent wires that may easily cut her if it just so happens she even moves. She ate a mouthful of sand and is having trouble spitting it out.

"Alright, let me go!" She yelled.

No response.

"Fuck!" Sakura yelled.

There was no response.

After around twenty minutes, finally realizing that something pinning her down isn't actually human-she sighed in misery. She has been treated like an animal back in her world, and she has been treated like an animal here. This is probably a tribe of cannibals in the desert waiting to eat her up alive. They are probably waiting for her to die so they could come and gut her open and...

"Kankuro, someone triggered your puppet." A voice came.

"Your right, I thought they were not foolish enough to walk bluntly into Suna. What a bunch of idiots."

Sakura realized its human-human voices. Human voices speaking a language she can understand! Human voices that sounded menacing, a female and male voice accompanies by each other-oh my god, she wanted to jump up in happiness if the "puppets" are not pinning her onto the ground.

"Help me! Help me!" She screamed, "I'm injured!"

The pair walked over. Kankuro did not release the puppets, for he was gawking at her like an idiot. So was the girl, Sakura was dismayed. They both were gawking at her like idiots. It seemed they have lost the ability to speak as they stared at her. Sakura didn't think it was possible to feel more awful than she did now. She tried to plead, "Please, let me go. Let me go, I'm hungry and thirsty and my wrist it broken. It hurts like hell, and it's swollen. Do you have any medicine, herbs, or whatever things you guys use to treat the wounded..."

Finally the girl with blond hair and purple eyes stopped her from blabbing anything else by almost yelling at her, "What are you doing here?"

Sakura silenced, she stared at both of them as if they were idiots.

The girl then turned to the guy named Kankuro and almost screamed, "Kankuro, what is she doing here! Isn't she Uchiha Sasuke's wife?! What the fuck is his wife doing in our territory!?"

"Shit, shit, shit!" Kankuro cursed and stomped on his feet, but did nothing to release Sakura from his puppet traps. "What the fuck is that bastard thinking?"

Now Sakura stared at them and (if possible), yelling even louder, "The fuck!? Uchiha Sasuke? The bisexual promiscuous slut who has been shacking up with my ex-fiancé?"

And they all stared at each other.

It didn't last long, however, as Sakura fainted from dehydration, pain, and possibly shock.

And this is how her story began.

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TBC

A/N: Finally I buckled down and organized my thoughts and wrote this. Many thanks to my beta, Midnightcurl.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I was surprised that I had so much fun writing this.

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Chapter 2

I.

Sakura didn't wake up right away. She was in her medically induced drowsiness that she identified as some sort of morphine. She has some basic knowledge of herbs and natural medical ingredients. She came from a long line of doctors, and imagine their surprise when she decided to go into literature.

One distinction should be made clear here. In this world full of shinobis, immediate dangers, and constant battles, Sakura had no choice but to go medical. One could not help but feel that she could've have explored other options-and since she came from a world where basic combat isn't required to be drilled into her brain, she chose the path that's milder and more enjoyable to her-at least in a society of temporary peace. This path, however, opened her eyes and made her clever, something she would regret later.

But right now, she knows she is drowsy, and she is in a warm bed. Her brain is screaming for her to wake up, but her eye lids seemed to have a mind of their own. They're heavy to the point of it being impossible to move them, and she tried to pry them open, but it's too hard.

Finally giving up, she let out a soft breath. Then she heard voices.

Yes, conversation. Voices.

"What do you think we should do? Send her back? Should we tell Uchiha?"

"We should. Technically."

"She's a guest here-since she didn't attempt to invade us-"

"What the hell happened to her chakra level? I can't feel a damn thing on her!"

"That is odd. I thought she was supposed to be- scarily strong. Right?"

"Is she Sakura at all?"

"We ran a DNA test, the lab says it's a 99% match from the blood sample we collected years ago."

"What the hell is going on? She's freaking me out. That Uchiha bastard is freaking me out. What if he wants another war? Isn't he satisfied with what he has already? I heard recently he learnt the secret to immortality..."

"Kankuro, stop it. Stop getting freaked out." The girl spoke. "I think we should wait until she wakes up and ask her what happened. I think... there's a slight chance that she escaped from him, rather than spying on us."

Kankuro scoffed, "Escape? Don't make me laugh."

Then a voice who has been silent the entire time spoke aloud, "She's awake."

Sakura therefore had no choice but to open up her eyes. The morphine is slowly wearing off as she felt a dull pain coming back throbbing in her wrist and spreading towards her entire body.

She saw a guy in a very weird cape and had, he had red hair and green eyes-wait. That's Gaara. What the fuck? She recognizes him-she truly does. Because back in her world, you have to be a Martian not to recognize Gaara. Gaara is an extremely successful musician whose music involves more screaming rather than actually singing. She doesn't know Gaara personally, but she has seen billboard photos of him, screaming fan girls waiting in front of his production company, and a glimpse of him in autograph sessions in Tokyo.

She was excited, of course. So the first thing that she blurted out from her mouth was, "Sing!"

All three stared at her.

"Sing for me! Sing!" She tried to raise her voice, but then ended with a series of coughs.

"Ok, something is seriously wrong with her." Temari rolled her eyes, "Who could blame her though, being with that bastard for so many years."

"I'm not crazy." Sakura insisted. "I was just lost. What is this place? Are we still on earth?"

"What?" Kankuro frowned, "you're talking gibberish."

"Japan? Asia? North America? People? Countries? Democracy? Oh my god!" Sakura started to scream by the end of her list.

"I understood 'people; and 'country'... not the rest though." Gaara admits rather humbly, since he has been the Kazekage for many years. "This is interesting... State your name, please."

"Haruno Sakura." Sakura said. Blinking in confusion, "What's wrong?"

"And you know who I am?" Gaara asked.

"Of course. You're Gaara." Sakura replied, then added, "You're a famous singer."

Both Temari and Kankuro burst out their laughing much to the Kazekage's embarrassment.

"Gaara? Sing?" Kankuro was almost on the ground rolling with excessive laughing.

"I've never tried it. Perhaps I'm good at it." Gaara glanced at them before continuing. "Well, Sakura. Do you remember what happened that caused you to enter our territory?"

"I didn't know there was a territory." Sakura begin, "I thought I was still in Japan, but wait, we don't have vast deserts. I thought... What the hell is this place?"

"I say we send her down to the interrogation unit." Kankuro said.

"Send an Uchiha down there, are you crazy?" Temari slapped Kankuro on the head before she softened her gaze at Sakura, "I believe we were friends once."

"We were?" Sakura felt awful for even being confused. "I'm so sorry, I... don't remember... This is all just too confusing. If Gaara isn't a rock star, what could he possibly do for a living? I mean, that's his only talent."

Kankuro finally fell down onto the ground from excessive laughing.

Gaara strides past Kankuro and extended his hand out to Sakura, "Hello. I'm currently the Godaime Kazekage of Suna. It really seem like you don't remember anything... But pardon me; we need to get a look inside your mind regardless."

"Uh..." Sakura has no idea how to respond to the latter, so she responded to the previous, "What's a Kazekage. What do you call yourself a fifth wind shadow?"

Note that's the direct translation of the title. Naturally if she has no experience of this world, she tends to take everything literally. Unfortunately this also has the side effect of making her look like a complete retard.

"I..." Gaara has never been asked this question in his life. He doesn't quite know how to respond properly. So she looked behind him, asking for assistance from his sister, who was also holding onto her laughter.

Temari, despite her playful behaviour, has evolved into a mature young woman these couple of years. They're all in their early twenties, and they have seen too much of the world. The men may have only experienced slaughtering, killing and fighting, but Temari matured in various different ways. She had her heart torn out, and she had her heart healed. It's the reason why she looks at Sakura with such sad eyes even though the girl had no idea what's going on. She has her doubts on Sakura, and she did not yet rule out the possibility of Uchiha Sasuke wiping her mind clean-but if he did, then she wouldn't show signs of struggling and escaping. She suffered heatstroke, dehydration, and she seemed to have knowledge of things that are not relevant.

Temari decided to talk to her, thus she give her brothers a look. Gaara heeded the silent request and exited the room while dragging Kankuro behind him. Temari then walked over to her bed and sighed. She really doesn't know where to begin-but it seemed that this might be as good place as any.

"Sakura-do you know Uchiha Sasuke?"

Sakura's eyes burnt with rage. "Do I?"

The blond haired girl was confused, but not without reason. She doesn't exactly know what happened to Sakura, therefore maybe Sasuke abused her. It does not seem, though, that Sasuke would be the kind of man that enjoys torturing his wife-but she doesn't doubt it. He is a sick son of a bitch, and everybody knows it.

"What is his relation to you?" Temari tried tentatively.

Sakura isn't stupid. She observed her surrounding and realized finally she isn't in Japan anymore. It does not seem that someone called himself the "Godaime Kazekage" could possibly not know what earth is. She freaked out a little, but then calmed down and decided instantly she will need to react fast and survive in this world. This means, everything coming out of her mouth must be carefully contemplated before actually presenting her words out to the world. Although so much shock happened to her after she didn't even heed her own warnings.

"He's a bastard." Sakura replied.

Temari nodded. "I agree."

Sakura eyed her, "Did you sleep with him too?"

Temari literally choked on air.

"What?" Sakura regretted it. "I don't mean to offend your honour. It's alright if you slept with him. I think he has slept with half the city."

"..." Now Temari really doesn't know what to say. She stared at Sakura, who seemed very sincere, then replied, "Um... Sakura-chan, I... He... He doesn't rule over a city. He rules over a village composed of militias..."

"Village?" Sakura widened her eyes. She has no idea how far back in time she has travelled, or if she still in her own timeline at all-because apparently nobody use the word village in the modern world. It seems though, that in this place "village" is all there is.

"Yes." Temari thought she did not understand the implication of Uchiha's power. "He... um... he isn't exactly a saint."

"I know." Sakura said, nonchalant. "It's not in my place to judge him, but I think he'll die soon, maybe from an STD."

Temari widened her eyes, "It's exactly in your place to judge! And him? Dying soon?"

Sakura bit her lips. "What?"

And her stomach growled

Finally Temari realized there's no point talking to her. She turned around and said, "You must be hungry. I'll have some food brought up. Meanwhile, let me discuss with my brothers on..." What to do with you.

She exited the room.

II.

Temari quickly hurried down the hallway and into Gaara's study, who was standing by the open window.

"What did you do?" Temari eyed him.

Gaara looked confused, "I just sent a message to Naruto."

"No!" She yelled.

"Why?" Gaara looked mildly confused.

She sighed, "Before you do anything, I'm not sure it's a good idea for her to reconnect with any pasts at all. She... she's changed. I think. She's changed-completely. It's like the past six years has never happened. She was the Sakura before the war-I don't know how I could tell-probably because she didn't try to escape or harm anything during the first 10 minutes after she woke up."

Gaara frowned, "So you're saying... she completely changed? What is this, a selective memory loss?"

"I don't know." Temari blinked, "I need to talk more to find out-also, I need to bring one of the interrogators. One that doesn't look too frightening. The girl—whether she's an Uchiha or not-she doesn't have an ounce of chakra in her that could be channelled throughout her body to create jutsus. I'm having a hard time telling if it's sealed or not. We need an expert."

"That's why I asked for Naruto." Gaara explained. "I asked him to bring Yamanaka-san and Nara-san-that don't be a problem for you, would it?"

Temari rolled her eyes, "I'll just go somewhere else when he's here."

"I see." Gaara let out a small sigh, "I suspect the moment they get the message, they'll be on their way. So expect them tomorrow evening-at the latest."

"I'll see to it." Temari said, but then changed her mind, "Or rather, can you make sure Kankuro see to it? I'll see to Sakura. I have a feeling Kankuro won't handle her well enough."

"Of course. See what you can dig up and report back to me." Gaara ordered.

Temari sniggered, "You know, whenever you give us orders. Kankuro gets pissed. I don't, because I picture you in diapers."

Gaara glared at her passively.

She quickly jumped away from him and out the door, "Bye, Kazekage-sama! And don't forget to show your supposed only talent-singing!"

III.

She them wobbled across the room into the washroom, and looked into the mirror.

She screamed.

Her scream caused Temari to barge in.

"What happened?!" Temari yelled.

"Look!" Sakura pointed to the mirror.

"What?" Temari yelled again.

"My hair! My hair!" Sakura almost screamed her head off, "Look at my hair, my beautiful hair, my conditioned hair, my salon treated hair, my glossy, pretty, layered and slightly dyed a deep shade of wine red hair for my wedding-what the fuck, what the fuck!?"

Temari leaned against the bathroom wall and seriously considering if this girl has any mental problems.

"It's choppy, it lacks lustre, it's tangled-Oh my god and it's in streaks! Streaks! Has this hair touched any treatment at all? Did I not know what basic hygiene was? And split ends-SPLIT ENDS!"

Everyone has to pardon Sakura here. How would a modern day girl feel if she wake up one day and found her head full of beautiful hair that she has been so proud of, is nothing better than a birds nest with splits ends everywhere?

Of course Sakura is vain about hair. It's the only thing that covered up her forehead. Besides, even though everybody around her comforted on her forehead, she felt the need to compensate with a head full of glossy pink hair. It was literally like a waterfall before, with the slightest wave, her hair falls behind her in ripples. She had a head full of hair that could make a shampoo commercial actress jealous. Now this girl, this girl who used to wear Louboutins and Armani shades with Valentino silk top-found herself bruised, injured, and a head full of damaged hair which was as good as going bald. It does things.

Temari obviously does not think so. She sighed and said, "Would you like me to help you... shower?"

"Would you?" Sakura looked longingly at her.

"I might as well do it. None of the other servants would." Temari said.

Sakura was temporarily distracted, "Why? Why is it that girl so scared of me? What did I do?"

Temari tried to put it in the nicest way possible without bringing too much of the past that would trigger more questions. "It's nothing you did... It's just. Well, your husband."

"Stop saying I have a husband. I'm not married yet." Sakura watched as Temari went to the bathtub and begin to fill it with warm water and bath solution.

"Huh." Temari narrowed her eyes at her. "You had pretty memorable wedding, as I recall."

"Why, was it pretty?"

"No, it started a battle between villages."

"Ok, I have no idea what any of these mean. I don't even know they happened. I don't remember anything in the past." Sakura tried to tell her, "I seriously have no recollection of what I did or who I was. So please just... Please-treat me kindly."

"Of course." Temari said in understanding. She thought about her response and her mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that Sakura must've experienced major trauma and is now talking like a maniac. "Don't touch water with your left hand."

"Alright." Sakura took off her clothes and leaned down into her tub. "Can you tell me more about my past?"

She frowned, "I don't think it's in my place to tell."

"I give you permission."

"It doesn't work like that. My views are biased, and we weren't exactly best buds. I think it's better if we invite some of your old friends to come and see you."

"I have old friends?"

"Of course." Temari smiled, "they're our biggest ally, too."

"Mhmm... Old friends..." Sakura immersed herself in hot water and felt relieved. "I don't have any idea of how I got here, but I like it. This place is so peaceful. There's isn't dramas or whatever crap I had to deal with before. By the way, could you find me a job and an apartment? I'd like to live here."

Temari once again stared at Sakura. An Uchiha? Working under Suna? Then she recovered herself and quickly said, "Well, you're always welcome as a guest. As long as you abide by our rules, don't cause trouble or harm to our people."

She rubbed some shampoo onto her hair and massaged her scalp gently.

"That's easy. I mean, occasionally I started bar fights..." Sakura sighed in happiness. "I'm just happy I'm not alone out there anymore. I think I wouldn't last a day in the wilderness..."

After the bath and the blow dry, Sakura went outside to immerse herself in the lazy twilight sun, then went back to her room and slept continuously for twelve hours straight.

She was so happy that day, because she escaped her reality and came to this world with shelter, food, and nice people and they said her old friends-whom she never met-are coming to visit her tomorrow.

Yeah... Sakura was very naive back then.

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TBC

A/N: Many thanks to MidnightCurls for beta-ing this.

Anything that wasn't clear and desperately need to be explained or else you will not sleep tonight-pm me.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I'm beginning to think this is a good fic for yaoi lovers too, but sadly there isn't going to be actual yaoi here.

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Chapter 3

I.

Temari sat beside her as she watched Sakura be all jittery and excited.

"You're saying I grew up with them?" Sakura asked for the third time.

"Yes." Temari glared at her, "Stop asking obvious questions. They're almost here. I got the message from Kankuro at the border."

"Wow." Sakura sighed. "What are their na-"

"Ah, they're here!"

Before anyone could react, a yellow flash dashed into the room and Sakura felt herself hugged by someone with a huge bear-hug. The hug felt so familiar, as if it was déjà-vu. And Sakura suddenly felt comforted and happy by this hug, like she was used to when she's with-

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled at her.

Sakura stared at Naruto, the goofy yellow hair boy whose face presents the happiest grin.

What she did next completely surprised everyone. Shikamaru and Ino were just walking into the hall when they saw Sakura slapped Naruto across the face and pushed him down onto the ground. This isn't a playful push either, because Sakura was so angry she could barely speak. She trembled and pointed her finger at Naruto, "You... you..."

Naruto looked up at her while holding his cheek, dumbfounded.

"Son of a bitch!" Sakura screamed. "You son of a bitch! You have the balls to face me? We were supposed to be engaged, ENGAGED! You piece of shit, you're the scum of the earth, and you're not worth my attention or my time, go fuck with that Uchiha!"

Sakura then walked past them, and then saw Ino and Shikamaru standing in front of her, equally dumbfounded.

She frowned at them, "Aren't you guys supposed to be divorced? How can you stand the sight of each other?"

Temari quickly yelled, "Ah, Sakura! She's a bit... delusional!"

Sakura threw her hands up, "I can't take this shit, I can't take anymore of this shit. You two, especially you" She pointed at Ino, "You and your whining are driving me crazy. And you" She pointed at a stupefied Naruto, "Come near me again, and I will rip your balls off."

She then ran back into her room.

II.

"Sakura?" A knock on the door was heard.

She buried her head under the sheets.

Temari came in and sat right next to her. "Sakura, please, listen to me."

She grunted. Temari took this as a sign to continue.

"You know, I don't know why you reacted so violently back there," Temari sighed. "But Naruto is taking it pretty hard. He's very sad. You have no idea how excited he was to meet you. He ran all the way here from Leaf."

"Mhmmmhmhhmhmhmhm." Sakura said.

"Pardon me?"

"I said." Sakura pulled the covers down from her head, "I have no knowledge or relation with time or place in this world. I don't care. I..."

"Ok, let's get something straight here." Temari sat her up and looked her in the eye. "Sakura, first of all, Naruto wasn't the person fucking Sasuke. You were."

Sakura stared at her.

"And second of all, you've got to stop with blurting things out. I know how it can be ... stimulating to see your old friends, but that's how relationships get destroyed.

"I..." Sakura knew she was right, obviously.

"Sakura, dear, please." Temari sighed. "Tell me... Tell me something I don't know or I need to know so I can mediate this tension. It's driving us all crazy. You seem to have lost your memory, yet you have distinct impressions of everybody..."

She quickly grasped onto her arm in a kneeling position, "Fucking hell, Temari, you have no idea. I have been bottling this up for the... last 36 hours now. I need to tell someone. But I'm afraid people will think I'm insane, like how you and Kankuro thought I was insane when I said Gaara is a singer. But he is! You have to believe me! In my dimension, he's a huge star! He is! He was, I suppose. He was so huge, he sang the best songs, and he's rich, he has millions of people admiring him and feeding on his ego, he won awards, he went platinum, and he was absolutely magnificent!"

Temari was shaken back and forth by her, "I believe you!"

"Thank god!" Sakura plopped back down. "Can you get him to sing? If he sing, I can prove to you-he really IS a singer."

"Uh...He's a leader of a village."

"Ugh." Sakura made a face.

Temari then tentatively asked, "Sakura, tell me about Naruto."

She frowned.

"Please." Temari said, "Well, how about I go first? I will tell you about him, and then you can judge him how you like."

"Fine." She grunted.

Temari calmed herself and breathed in and out. Then she collected her thoughts and said, "Well. You've known him all your life. You guys were in the same shinobi team-"

"Hold up, hold up, hold up." Sakura stopped her. "Let me stop you right there. Shinobi? By Shinobi you mean... actual ninjas? With flying kunais and jutsus to make fires?"

Temari thought she was going insane.

Sakura still did not believe it. "Prove it!"

This was easy, as Temari got out a kunai and said, "Point to a marking on the wall behind me. Any place."

Sakura pointed to the smudge behind the flower vase. Temari glanced at it, then turned around on her back she's facing against the vase. She tossed her kunai backwards, while it pierced through the petals and indented itself directly onto the smudge. In fact it went in all the way to the hilt.

Sakura widened her eyes and clapped. "Whoa..."

"You can do this too." Temari decided to try to coax her. "Here." She carefully handed her a blunt kunai. "Focus your eyes onto that smudge right there, on the corner, try to hit it."

"I can't do it." Sakura denied, "Seriously? We're serious here, Temari."

"It would not be serious if you can't do it." Temari glared at her. "Sakura, just concentrate. Imagine chakra flowing inside you-"

"Wait wait wait, hold up." Sakura raised a hand. "Chakra? Chakra!? Like Chi? Like the energy in the legendary books-"

Temari finally exploded. "Just throw it!"

Sakura got scared and immediately threw the kunai. Unfortunately her shinobi skills has left her completely, as she literally threw the kunai across the room like a three year old would a toy he doesn't like, and it bounced off the wall and onto the ground without even making a single indent.

Both girls stared at it, and then Temari decided, "Ok that's enough shinobi lessons for today-"

"I still can't believe shinobi existed." Sakura muttered.

"-and get back to what's really important." She continued, ignoring anymore comments coming out of her that seemed idiotic. "You grew up with Naruto, and he has always liked you. But you didn't like him. And when we were all around 15, 16-ish, a huge war broke out, and it involved everyone. You left your home village after the war. And as far as I know, Naruto has always liked you. Well, now he's going out with Hinata, I think. But yes. Naruto has done nothing to betray you, he's the most honest and moral person I know. We all owe him a lot-"

Sakura had enough of hearing her praise him, so she stopped her and said, "I know he's awesome. I know he's kind-hearted and wonderful. I know, I know, I know, because I was engaged to the guy for two freaking years. But in this dimension you said that I grew up with him-tell me, what exactly is his relationship with Uchiha Sasuke?"

Temari almost laughed, "They're friends. Well now they're friends slash enemies. Sasuke created himself a criminal militia, and Naruto is trying to mediate the peace between him and other nations. Naruto tried very hard to save Sasuke and bring him back into the light..."

Sakura, based on all her literary knowledge, asked Temari. "Alright. I believe you because you have no reason to lie to me, but answer me the following questions."

"Alright." Temari saw that Sakura was serious. She also became serious.

"First." Sakura began, "Naruto and Sasuke, they were friends when they were young, right?"

"Of course. You guys all grew up together."

"Naruto was a sunny and funny boy, right? He was the class clown and full of spontaneity right?"

"Yes. He is full of surprises."

"And Uchiha Sasuke. He is a man full of dark past and pain, right?"

"Yes."

"And they were best friends right up until Sasuke have this power hungry urge to control everything and anything around him, right?"

"Yes. Sort of."

"And he went rogue, back in my world he went to the underground. So Sasuke, he went to the "darker" side of society, right?"

"Yes." Temari answered, reminded of how Sasuke ran to Orochimaru.

"Then Naruto, this sunny boy full of peace and goodness, followed Sasuke and try to bring him back to the "good" side, so he won't get into trouble with the government-I mean, the higher authorities-and start a war, right?"

"Yes."

"And then, he tried for many years to pursue him, and never give up, right?"

"Yes..."

"And you know for a fact that he would take a bullet-I mean, a kunai-for Sasuke, because he firmly believed they have a bond stronger than anything even if this Sasuke is the Vader-I mean, devil-himself?" Sakura give Temari a look as if stating the obvious.

Temari stared at Sakura, and then the realization dawned upon her. Now that Sakura has analyzed it, maybe there's a slight chance that... nobody knew that... oh my god...

"Son of a bitch." Temari said.

III.

Naruto is definitely not having a good day today. The day he thought was supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life-imagine, Sakura-chan actually agreeing on meeting him. He thought it was odd that Sakura was at Suna, but he didn't question it. Normally he was sure Sasuke would force her to stay in his compounds or village and never let her go. He has seen her total of three times during the past six or seven years, and one of them was at her wedding.

Why is she talking nonsense? Why did she hit him? What did he do wrong? Is it because he forgot her birthday? Is it because he didn't try harder to visit her? Why is she so mean towards him?

He sat in defeat, and wanted to cry to himself. His depression became so bad that Ino yelled at him, "Naruto, would you get a grip!?"

"Sakura-chan doesn't like me anymore." Naruto sighed.

Shikamaru is as calm as ever. "Let's wait this out. I'm sure Temari is sorting this as we speak.

To which Ino glared at Shikamaru, "Oh, you would know, wouldn't you."

The genius shinobi sighed. "I'm not having this conversation again. Whatever happened in the past was in the past. Please, let it go."

Ino refused to let go, obviously. But these past years as turned her anger from being overly expressive into passive aggressive. She sat down and folded her arms. "Naruto is right; I wonder what has gotten into Sakura. I was so surprised she actually escaped that hell hole."

"Well." Shikamaru sighed, "Based from my initial observation, I don't think Sakura is the Sakura we know. She... changed."

"Six years, bound to change someone." Naruto defended.

"But the timing- it's curious." Shikamaru said, "Don't you find it weird, especially with the threat of war?"

"I don't care." Naruto stubbornly said, "I believe in her."

"One of your faults of which I had to deal with the fall out." Shikamaru muttered underneath his breath.

Naruto caught that. He let out a small sigh before explaining himself, "Shikamaru... If I lived in this world without faith, I wouldn't last. You know that. I keep on holding on a thread of belief that maybe, maybe we were not born here to suffer. Peace is maintained, honesty is valued, and forgiveness is always an option. I want ... I really want everybody to know that. I don't want to generalize, I don't want to dig for the essence, because once we start doing it, we simplify them. And when we simplify our citizens, it became prominent that there are those who are disposable, and those who are valuable-and that's a path I swore to myself I would never go down to."

"I understand." Shikamaru raised a hand. "The words straight from Kakashi-sensei's mouth, huh?"

"And my Dad," Naruto smiled proudly, and as if nobody present knew, he added. "I have a Dad."

"Of course. The Fourth." Shikamaru finally let out a smile.

"That's why... That's why I won't give up." Naruto said. "That's why I will try my hardest."

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TBC

A/N: Hopefully this chapter makes you realize the complexity of Naruto and his behaviour. He has grown up... quite a lot.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Needless to say, this is almost a completely different story from "Rain". But the core will remain the same.

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Chapter 4

I.

Poor Naruto did now know that in the other room upstairs, he has been classified as homosexual with Uchiha Sasuke by two girls. They are discussing it in such extensive detail that it may have given Naruto a heart attack if he had been listening at the door.

"You see?" Sakura said, "The point is, however, it's not that he is considered "gay" from the beginning. Naruto is wonderful, I know-but he... He just can't help who he falls in love with."

Temari sweat dropped, "Love has no boundaries."

"And besides," Sakura added. "He's... It was not his plan to fall in love with Sasuke either. Originally, their relationship was quite pure, I guess. But it was so intense-the nature of the relationship became sexual. Not "sexual" in the sense that everybody else thinks, not physical lust, but rather his obsession went a long way and it was so strong, so deep-that he had no choice but to display it in this manner- pent up desires exploded almost frighteningly. They're obviously in love with each other"

Sakura tends to take things at face value.

"What you say does make sense - In a twisted way." Temari had to agree. "But this only proves that Naruto is in love with Sasuke, you have no evidence to prove that Sasuke is in love with Naruto."

Sakura gave her the "are you dumb" look, then said, "It's a pattern, can't you tell?"

"What?"

"You said Sasuke is a genius, right?"

"Uh... yes."

"Well, Sasuke is a genius, so he observes, he deduces, he can detect human mind and their psyche. You said he leads an militia, all great military leaders has the ability to be frightening, eccentric and charismatic at the same time. Think about it like this, if he's so intelligent, then he knows Naruto's psyche too. Let's face it- Naruto has the wit only in crisis. In normal everyday situations he's dumb as a door knob." Sakura generalized.

"You're right." Temari had to agree.

"If Sasuke really does understand Naruto, and I'm betting a million bucks that he does, then he understands that the only way to get Naruto to stop chasing after him is to respond back with kindness and sincerity. But he doesn't do that, you see! He doesn't do that! He treats Naruto like shit because of his excessive ego, knowing full well the more stoic he gets, the more Naruto relentlessly pursues!"

The blond haired girl blinked a few times, then decided. "I will never look at those two the same way again."

"I told you so. It's a lesson. I learn it the hard way." Sakura sighed sadly. "I should've taken the warnings. Or at least the signs, when Naruto came back home talking about his friend; and how disturbed he was. I didn't care because I thought Naruto was a naturally caring person, but to stumble in on them lying on top of each other in bed..."

"Must be quite something..." Temari patted her shoulders sympathetically.

"Well, I can safely say that part of my obsession towards yaoi faded away." She responds. "I just, I would be really happy if I don't see them again. I know they're probably not homosexuals. They're probably both just normal people trying to find a soul in this world to love, you know? But I just wish they hadn't done it at the expense of my feelings and life. I wish I never met them, and then they can love each other all they like."

It just went to show how romantic Sakura is.

"You're so understanding." Temari felt a certain respect for the girl who she thought was an idiot. "If it was me I would have taken a knife and hacked both of them up."

"I can't exactly do that." Sakura made a face, "I need chakra to do ninjutsu. There's a sentence I'd never thought I'd say."

"Well, we can train you." Temari offered. "But it takes a long time, and it's a process that must be-"

"Never mind." Sakura frowned, "I have a hard time waking up in the morning. I saw your men today. They were running laps under the sun, and I thought to myself, I can work, but if I had to run laps to make a living, just shoot me."

"..."

II.

Gaara sat at his desk, and in front of him are two strong forces threatening to tear each other apart.

On one end are his allies from Leaf, and on the other is his own sister.

Naruto is very persistent, "Just let me see her, I want an explanation. I really want to see her, Temari-chan, please, please, please?"

"No." Temari glared at him. "No visitors- Especially you. Sakura has had a long day. She has experienced... a lot. I don't think she will see anyone today."

"Then we will wait until tomorrow." Naruto said determinedly.

"Tomorrow is not good either." Temari said.

Shikamaru sighed while reminding Naruto, "Remember what Hokage-sama said? We can't stay for more than two days."

"Then we'll bring her back with us." Naruto didn't budge. "She belonged to Leaf. She always has been. She wants to be back."

"No she doesn't." Temari said.

Gaara raised an eyebrow. "Temari, are you sure this is what Sakura said-that she doesn't want to see them?"

Temari nodded fiercely.

"I don't believe you." Naruto glared at her, "You're hogging her. You're not being fair. I need to see her- I haven't seen her in so long..."

"Temari." Gaara finally stepped in. "What is the reason that Uchiha-san doesn't want to see her old friends? She was excited yesterday, or so I'm told."

"She was." Temari agreed. "As for the reason... It's not in my place to say, but she's under the impression you ruined her life, Naruto."

"How!?" Naruto wailed.

Temari had to turn away to stop herself from laughing.

"What's so funny? Temari! Tell me!" The loud mouthed ninja persisted.

Temari finally stopped trying to snicker, as she remembered Sakura's words on how one should not discriminate against anybody by their sexual preferences, or education, gender, class, age, or race. That's one of the ideals that Temari found it funny that Sakura could be so morally insistent upon. Especially when Sakura, supposedly, grew up in a society where war imminent and looming. It's too idealistic to actually be true. If that's who Sakura is now, then she definitely believes that Sakura isn't the person that everybody believes she is.

"Naruto." Temari said, "I think, if you are so insistent upon seeing Sakura, I could ask her when she wants to go back to Leaf. I do agree, it's her home after all. And I personally don't think she can even last a month here in Suna. But before that, I suggest you leave her be."

Naruto glared.

And Temari is one of those people who are immune to glares. She has been desensitized to them, after all, living with Gaara all her life.

"That is all." She said, and then exited the room.

Naruto tried to follow her, but Shikamaru stopped him. "Enough, Naruto, let's respect her wishes. I think she has made it pretty clear. After all, we can't force Sakura to come with us. She really isn't a Leaf ninja anymore. And remember what our Hokage said-we need you back ASAP. There's a war coming, and they could be attacking Konoha right at this moment."

This stopped Naruto. But it's not in his nature to let go. He sighed, "I wonder why she isn't with Sasuke."

Shikamaru shrugged, "I wonder why he isn't with her."

"I wonder." Naruto plopped down on to the ground.

"A-hem." Gaara cleared his throat and glared at all of them. "You guys know that I have a village to run in this office. My appointments are backing up."

"Of course. I'm sorry." Shikamaru displayed proper respect to the Kazekage, and then dragged a half sulking Naruto out.

III.

Naruto's idea of staying put isn't quite the same as everyone else's. That's why when the sky has darkened; Sakura was about to go to sleep when she felt a hand clasping on her mouth, and then a male voice said, "Don't scream."

Sakura was a good girl, so when Naruto released her, she actually didn't scream. She relaxed immediately when she saw who came into her room, but she's not happy about it.

"I thought I told Temari I don't want to see you."

"I thought that was something she made up." Naruto said with perfect sincerity.

Sakura stared at him, and then sighed, "Naruto, it's different. Everything is different. I have changed, and I lost my memory, so I'm so different from what you remember of me that I could only tell you that your perception of me is completely and utterly... false. I changed!"

"You lost your memory?" Naruto stared. "Then why did you hit me?"

She thought about a reasonable solution, but then decided it's never good to lie to anyone-especially her ex-fiancé, whom she has been trying to force herself to be civilized. So she said in a perfect serious voice, "I... I don't think you love me."

"What?" Naruto was stupefied, once again.

"You don't love me." Sakura said with perfect sincerity. "But I loved you. I loved you, once, so much that my heart hurt from just thinking about you."

To which Naruto stared, "Where was I when you felt this way?"

"You were in another dimension." She waved her hand nonchalantly. "The point is, Naruto, you were the first person who was ever good to me-unconditionally. I really believed in you, I loved you-but-"

"But? But?" Naruto lived in the moment as his mind filtered out what Sakura said that he didn't understand. He only focused on the part where she could possibly be in love with him-or was.

"But-you're in love with someone else." Sakura said in forlorn.

Naruto immediately felt guilty. Because what she said was ... partially true.

Only partially, though.

As one could see, the past of Naruto and his complicated relationships revolved around two females- Hinata and Sakura. After the World War, Sakura went with Sasuke. And after making sure countless times that Sakura really doesn't feel anything for him, Naruto returned to Konoha broken hearted, and was comforted by Hinata. He has a natural sense of unwavering responsibility through time or space.

So even when what Sakura was accusing him off wasn't true in this dimension, she was too ambiguous and Naruto was immediately guilty, thinking that she was referring to Hinata as the other woman he was in love with. Naruto isn't the best person to sort out his feelings. He doesn't know when he began to love Hinata, and if Sakura accused him of loving her while she still has feelings for him, he does not deny it. Sakura is an entity which he doesn't ever deny or accuse or find faults in.

In the other dimension, Sakura has yet to meet Sasuke. And she encountered Naruto first-and he loved her first.

"I...I'm so sorry." Naruto whispered while sitting down from the shock.

Sakura hugged him this time. She sat next to him on her bed and traced the side of his face. He has grown up wonderfully, and he's the exact same guy as she remembered. The guy who relentlessly chased after her, took care of her, while also holds the entire world within his heart. He is too kind hearted, too moral, too ethical and too wonderful to be true. This guy may not be mysterious and dark, but he loved her-and he loved her so much that her heart melted.

He looks like his father. Sakura took a note of. She remembering visiting the Uzumaki Mansion often, and Naruto's parents were incredibly kind and understanding for a couple of workers high up in the government. Naruto's dad was one of the Generals, and his mother was the head of the DA's office. They adored Sakura too, and Sakura was so grateful. They were down to earth, happy, and did not forget what it felt like to be young. They are lenient but strict to Naruto, and they raised a good son.

"I wish your mother was here." Sakura whispered.

Naruto stared at her.

She was lost in the moment as she slowly ran her fingers through his hair, "Your mother was so kind. She always knew what to do, even though she ran to Minato most of the time for solutions, she taught me what it means to be moral. She had such a solid sense of right and wrong, I bet she could sort this all out- in moments. Then I can follow her instructions and live the rest of my life knowing I had good advice."

Naruto did not understand her, but his eyes softened at her tender description of Kushina. He has met his mother through jutsus, and that's exactly how he felt about her too.

"I do have a mother." Naruto whispered. He has spent long enough time in the village that everybody called him a bastard. He insisted that he's not and naively thought the term referred to a boy who doesn't have a mother. He constantly reminded himself that he did have a mother, and she was so kind to him and wished nothing but the best future for her little boy.

"Of course you do." Sakura smiled as if there isn't a sliver of doubt.

Now Naruto finally became suspicious. Sakura sounded like she knew his mother, but he thinks she has never met Kushina in her life.

It's almost cute, though after everything Sakura has said, this is the sentence that aroused his suspicions.

"Sakura-chan. My mother... is dead." Naruto felt the need to point out the obvious, and even as he said it, he imagined Sakura to punch him a moment later for treating her as if she's stupid.

But to his surprise, she stared at him and her hands dropped away from his hair. She stuttered a few syllables, and then held her hand in her heart. "WH... what?"

Now Naruto is even more confused. "My mother is dead-she died when I was born."

Sakura finally yelled as loud as she could, "What? WHAT THE FUCK?"

Naruto is now more scared of Sakura than confused of her behaviour.

"You didn't know that? You said you lost your memory..."

"What about your Dad? Minato-san? Where is he? Where is he?!" Sakura grabbed onto Naruto's shoulders and shook him back and forth.

Naruto had to forcefully stop her from shaking him, and he replied very carefully, "He too, died... when I was born..."

"WHAT!?" Sakura screamed.

"Why is it that you don't know this?" Naruto blinked, "You don't know that they died?"

"This world is insane-insane!" Sakura paced around the room while shaking her head, pulling on her hair. "Now I suppose you'll tell me Sarutobi-sama is dead too, right? He can't possibly die! He's the President of my university-and he's the symbol of knowledge- I think he's old enough to know Einstein! Last time I saw him he was counting the species of turtles in his our campus garden and I had a suspicion the turtles moved faster than he did-"

She stopped ranting and then jumped to Naruto and started shaking him, "Tell me, is he dead? Is he dead?"

Naruto felt awful for saying this, so he nodded slightly.

"WHAT!? WHAT!?" Sakura is literally having a mental breakdown. "Are all the slightly senior people dead? What about my professor? My favourite advisor? Tsunade-sama, did she-"

Naruto finally stood up. "Sakura, I can't tell you the names of everyone that has died. It happened six years ago!"

"Kakashi? Kakashi-sama?" Sakura held onto the last thread of hope, "I mean he's a great commissioner, I wrote my thesis on power and relation on him-"

"He isn't dead." Naruto happily informed her.

Sakura then listed everybody she knew, "What about Jiraiya-sensei, what about Kurenai-sensei, what about Yamanaka-sensei, what about Obito-"

The door was busted open by Temari, and she thought she had a life time of breaking down doors during these past two days. "Sakura, why are you screaming? Naruto! You're not allowed to be here!"

Sakura immediately lurched to Temari, "Temari, Temari, Naruto said Sarutobi-sama died. Tsunade-sama died too, is that true? Is that true!?"

Temari stared.

"Tell me!" She insisted.

"Uh, yes." Temari said.

Sakura finally burst to tears.

She cried for a minute, then raised her head and asked, "I'm going to ask for one more name... She raised me when I was young, and last time I saw her, she was baking me cookies and teaching me how to identify herbs in her garden... Chiyo-sama. Is she... Is she still here?"

The two averted her eyes.

Sakura felt a stabbing pain in her stomach. She has finally realized... just a little, how cruel this world was. This world, filled with killing and murder and sacrifices. Right up until now she thought she has been transferred to a mid millennium Japanese fairy tale. Now, she lost almost everyone she looked up to and the people that were such an important part of her life.

Chiyo was her grandmother, and she desperately wished Sakura to go into medicine. But she did not persist when Sakura showed more interests in arts. She then introduced Sakura to Tsunade, the head of the Science Department, who managed to persuade Sakura to take some courses on basic health science and pre-med. In her campus where she spent her happy five years of life, she met the Dean, the President, and everyone who made her feel smart and special. She learnt so much from them, and regarded them as the epitome of all knowledge in Academia. She baked pastries for them, she gave them little gifts, and they helped her on her thesis, her papers, and gave her important insights. They invited her to conferences, parties, and that's where she met Naruto, actually- In a conference.

She lost Naruto in that world, which is true. But she would much rather stay there where she could visit her seniors. They pointed her to all the right directions and took care of her when she fell. She talked and presented her naive views on politics, arts, theories, sciences to them, and the responded and treated her with respect and care. She still had papers to hand in, companies to shadow, languages to learn, and herbs to grind... for them. They are as close to her as family will ever be, and all of the sudden, with a car crash and transferring to another world, they're just suddenly are all gone.

By the time Sakura realized what's going on, she was sitting on her bed, with her back petted by Temari. She was stoking Sakura's back like petting a small animal and Sakura looked up to her, and she looked back with sad eyes.

It's true then.

She bolted through the bathroom door and hurled. She hurled and hurled until there was nothing left in her stomach and all she could puke out was stomach acid. It burnt her throat, and it burnt her mouth. She couldn't puke anymore, and thus she sat down by the toilet and covered her face with her hand while curling herself into a tight ball and continued to cry. Tears leaked through her fingers continuously, and she couldn't seem to stop them.

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TBC

A/N: Finally, some reality sunk in. It's not all fun and games. But don't worry, there will be more fun and games... as one cannot remain sad forever. Appearance of Sasuke next chapter! Sorry for all the waiting. It won't be just a glimpse either, as you guys may know I tend to leave cliff hangers of character showings.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thank you to MidnightCurls, my beta.

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Chapter 5

I.

"Sakura, are you sure you want to do this?" Temari asked worriedly. "I know we don't have restrictions on where you should go, but you should know it is a very, very, very bad idea for you to go back to Konoha right now."

"Don't worry about me." Sakura waved her hand nonchalantly, "I'll be fine."

After the incident yesterday, Sakura decided to go back to Konoha with the Leaf shinobi. They prepared a backpack for her and were very surprised that she does not have any chakra flowing through her at the moment. They could not even jump through the trees; so they had to resort to waking.

It was perhaps the most awkward walk anyone has ever taken in a team of four. Sakura and Naruto having nothing to talk about, and she had kind of just admitted that Shikamaru and Ino's relationship is doomed to fail, and therefore their interaction did not go beyond past "Are you hungry", or "let's camp here tonight."

Finally, the day before they approached Konoha, Ino approached her one night.

She asked her simply "What did you mean when you said ... that Shikamaru and I are getting a divorce?"

Sakura blinked for a few seconds before saying, "It's just... I like to daydream, and I have trouble confusing illusions with reality."

Ino stared at her.

"Also," Sakura sighed, "You should let go. Stop grasping onto something that doesn't belong to you..."

Ino has had enough. She stood up and said, "Uchiha Sakura. Don't be surprised if you don't make it out of Konoha. You're very lucky that I didn't kill you right at this moment."

This should've been Sakura's first warning. But she decided to ignore it. Instead she followed them into the gates of Konoha where everybody stared at her, eyes widened and jaw dropped.

It was weird, very weird. First of all, gaining a new last name without her permission is already weird enough. Second, it seemed that nobody in Konoha actually expected her to be here. Some stared at her in fear, and some stared at her in awe or in disgust. There were all sorts of looks coming from all sorts of directions. Her excitement turned to annoyance as everybody kept on staring at her.

"I'm going to the Hokage and give the report." Naruto told his teammates. "I don't see any reason for you guys to be there unless they send in someone?"

Shikamaru turned around to the direction of his house without a word, while Ino sighed at Sakura, and followed him.

Sakura whispered to Naruto, "Who is the Hokage?"

Naruto give her a look and then smiled warmly, "its Kakashi-sensei."

"Kakashi-san, huh." Sakura tried to remember what Kakashi was like in her world. It was completely different because Kakashi was the police commissioner. She didn't get to talk to him much as he was always busy. It makes sense though, as to what Kakashi would do in this world. He was born to rule, and therefore he should.

Naruto was surprised she referred to Kakashi with an honorific. But he looked away before he showed any signs of sadness. "Yes, it's Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said, his eyes carefully observing Sakura. Finally he gave up and said, "Let's just go see him."

The two entered the Hokage towers, and immediately there are several guards standing in from of them. "Uzumaki-san-"

He waved, "I already checked. She poses no threat."

"But Uchiha-"

"It's fine." Naruto glared.

They backed off, and Sakura followed him up to the top of the stairs where he knocked on the door lightly. Sakura looked around. This place seemed to be packed with security. Apparently being the Hokage meant maximum protection.

"Come in." called a weary voice.

Naruto opened the door and walked inside. Sakura didn't move as she took a look inside the room. It's definitely what an office of a leader should look like. It has everything in order, and the various portraits of past leaders-

"Sarutobi-san and Minato-san." Sakura walked in ad directly went to the portraits. "Why are they up on a wall?"

Kakashi looked at her, and then back at Naruto. Who sweat dropped and answered, "Sakura has a slight... contorted view of ... um... Well she's not alright in the head."

Kakashi looked sceptical. Sakura realized she was being rude. So she bowed to him, "Kakashi-san. It's nice to see you."

Now he definitely looked sceptical. He turned to Naruto and said, "I thought Naruto-san's message says she has lost her memory."

"Same thing." Naruto sweat dropped. "She... She doesn't remember us the way we would like to be remembered. I mean, she thinks Gaara is a singer."

"Interesting." Kakashi stared at the girl. After deciding that it would probably be safe to look into her mind a little, he motioned, "Sakura-chan, please come here."

Naruto immediately jumped in front of him, "Kakashi-sensei, you already have Shizune-san!"

Kakashi stared at him with a bored look, and he ignored him and gestured Sakura to come over. "Sakura, if you will."

She nudged around Naruto and stood in front of her previous sensei. "Yes?" She asked, looking at him head on.

Kakashi was now very intrigued. It's a well known fact that he held the power of the Sharingan in his left eye. Normally people wouldn't dare to look at him in the eye, because obviously it's something dangerous. Sakura didn't dare to look at him straight in the eye either, ever since the war, she has been avoiding him. She was desperately afraid of him activating his eye and dig into whatever she was hiding. He could tell she wasn't living a nice life. He could tell she was miserable-but she hid it so tightly within her that Kakashi doesn't know if she would ever reveal herself out. But this Sakura, this Sakura with the big green eyes and curious expression looked at him without fear or pain.

This made him curious. So he flipped open his eye patch.

Naruto immediately said, "Sensei!"

"I know what I'm doing, Naruto." Kakashi give him a look. "Naruto, back down."

Naruto backed off, but his eyes are not leaving the two of them. Sakura tossed him a curious glance before her attention was called back upon by Kakashi.

"Sakura-chan, please look over here." He said.

And when she stared back at the Hokage, she was staring into his blood-red eye which spun like car wheels.

II.

Apparently nobody wants to rent or house an Uchiha.

Sakura was in Konoha less than five hours when she realized that she had nowhere to sleep. Crashing at Naruto's is her last resort. She tried to ask for a room in an inn, but even as she walked in, everybody hid behind the counters and wouldn't come out and talk to her. Sakura was having difficulty adjusting to this world already, and she might have to end up living on the streets.

She really doesn't want to sleep under the same roof as Naruto. She knew him too well-she knew everyone of his little quirks or his habits. She knew she could cook what he likes, and she knew she would clean his apartment and they would revert back to the days when they were still engaged. That's a path that she swore to herself that she doesn't want to go down to.

And Konoha is so funny. Every place is labelled with the village itself in front. For example, she just walked down one street and she bumped into three Konoha-inns. One Konoha swimming pool, two Konoha restaurants and five vendors that labelled, "The best Konoha style..."

She turned around, and realized Naruto has been following her-not so discreetly. She told him she needed sometime alone to think and find a place to work and live. He doesn't trust her at all in that she has the ability to take care of herself, so he followed her relentlessly. Sakura frowned before turning into a street that has just been lit with rows and rows of red lanterns.

"Sakura-chan, nooooo!" Naruto's voice was dragged out into a whimper when Sakura turned around and glared at him with the fiercest look she can muster. She then walked down the red-light district, and realized she's right in front of a huge sign that says, "Konoha Happy Hut".

"Huh." Sakura doesn't know whether to laugh or cry, and she glanced back at Naruto, who has been hiding behind a pole and gesturing for her to come over.

She tossed her hair back and walked straight in.

"Oh my!" An elder voluptuous woman with powder caked on her face flapped her fan and eyed Sakura. "I know who you are."

"Do you." Sakura muttered.

"Yes, yes." The woman giggled, "We created sex-toys after your husband."

Sakura turned around and walked out.

Naruto chased her down the street. "Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan, that was so scary, man!"

She ignored him.

"Please leave me alone!" Sakura yelled at him.

Oh great, now he looks like a poor and sad little puppy.

"I just-" Sakura signed as she pulled out a piece of trash from her hair that she was thrown by. "I just wish I can have something to count on. I wish this... everybody isn't so consumed by hatred and prejudice."

Naruto sighed as he sat beside her, "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan."

"Really." Sakura leaned back against a lamp post, "I really don't know what I was doing here. Kakashi-san didn't tell us what he saw inside my mind, but I knew what he saw."

"What did he saw?" Naruto asked, "Sakura-chan, tell me."

"He saw that I woke up in the middle of nowhere a week ago, and that's all that was in my mind." Sakura explained. "When you guys say that I don't remember, it's actually the truth. I really have no memory of what happened to you guys."

"But you remember me." Naruto argued, "Even though I did something you don't like, which I still don't know what, but you do remember me."

"Yes; but not in a good way." Sakura sighed. "I have been here a week and I realized how messy this place is. Back from what I remember, it's exactly messy as this, but we compete with minds instead of physical strength. Naturally it's... it's just psychologically messed up."

Naruto did not understand what she was talking about. So he leaned closer to her and asked quietly, "Sakura, can you tell me, what it that I did is?"

Sakura looked at him and saw a boy with such pureness and bliss. She shook her head and decided not to tell him. Instead she smiled and replied, "It's not that big of a deal. Or rather-it's just... hard. It was who you were, and I can't change that."

Naruto looked dejected.

She patted him and said, "I think I need some time alone. Kakashi said there's a homeless shelter around here somewhere..."

"Yeah, it's uh..." Naruto looked around, "Man, this part of the town sure changed. I used to live here."

"Is that right?" Sakura asked, but was suddenly reminded that it is right. It's right because he was an orphan. He didn't have parents in this world.

"Naruto." Sakura looked at him straight in the eye. "I really appreciate you. I appreciate everything you did; I appreciate your faith in me. But unfortunately I am in a place right now that meant I can't be able to reciprocate those feelings, and I have a feeling that you have moved on already."

"Moved on?"

"Hinata." Sakura said.

Naruto looked a bit embarrassed, "right."

The two stood and gawking at each other in awkward silence, until Naruto finally spoke, "The shelter's here. Come on."

Sakura spent her first night in Konoha in a cold and shabby building.

III.

She wondered what her wedding was like.

She wondered what happened that caused the Sakura in this world to want to escape from Uchiha Sasuke.

Sakura has yet to be familiarized with the name. Back in her world, the surname itself meant power and wealth. In this world, however, it meant fear and domination. She wonders how it was that she could be that she actually became the wife of someone so terrifying. This world is becoming more and more confusing to her, and she has lost the will to find out what happened, because she felt sure that she won't like it.

Next morning, she woke up extra early and asked a passerby to the direction of the tombs. She walked along the edge of dewy grass and picked some wild flowers along the way, and tied each bunch together with grass. There weren't many people on the streets yet because of how early it was. She began to wonder if she should dye her hair purely for the purpose of because it's so recognizable. Every girl is conscious of how she looks and especially for one to be looked at in fear because of her unique hair colour and that's how she was singled out.

She sighed; pushing that thought aside for now and entered the cemetery. There was a great huge monument right in the middle with names of each hero died in battle carved on top. There are some flowers lying on the tomb itself, and it looks like someone cleaned it regularly.

Sakura looked and looked, then found Tsunade's name, and she bowed to the grave itself and sighed again. Just when she should cry, she couldn't. Her tears must've dried out.

Finally, being tired of standing, she sat down on the drying grass and watched the sun slowly rose above the tombs.

This is the reason she came back to Konoha, and this is the only reason. Now, she wants to leave. She wants to go explore this world, or at least, go seek a way to go back to her own world. As much fun as this adventure has been, she doesn't think she's built for this-

"Sa, ku, ra."

A deep voice came from behind her. She froze, turning around and stared into a pair of spinning blood-red eyes.

She tried to speak, but no words came. She knew the feeling, the feeling of her privacy being invaded. It's piercing into her mind, and she could feel his eyes boring themselves into her like scalpels, scraping every corner. She wanted to scream, but something prevented her from even making a sound. She wants to breathe, but her oesophagus was strung so tight she couldn't intake air. She could feel the ruthlessness, the cruelty and the force he was using. This is completely unlike what Kakashi did, for Kakashi was gentle and afraid of damaging her mind. This man, however, clearly does not think that she has anymore brain cells left to damage.

Finally, she was released from the jutsu, and she coughed and gasped for air while holding onto the gravestone. After about a minute, she turned around and stared at that man, who was actually covered head to toe by a black cloak, and he's wearing a straw hat to hide his identity, revealing only a pair of eyes. Later though, she would find that only revealing a pair of eyes is as good as being exposed. She wondered if he was dumb and didn't think of it.

Sakura has long lived by the code, "if you have to hide, then you're not doing something good."

"Stop right there." She said, holding a hand to stop him from coming closer. While obviously he didn't move a single step. Sakura could tell that from his hat he tilted his head a little and looked at her questioningly.

"You shouldn't come closer." She repeated her wishes.

"Why?" He was amused.

"Because;" She replied, "I don't have any money."

"Mhmm..." He seemed a bit confused. "Are you asking me for money?"

Sakura then decided that this guy is retarded. First of all, why would he think that the person he was about to rob is asking him for money. Second of all, one look at her and he would find that she doesn't have anything valuable on her. Pardon Sakura, she came from a society that material pleasure, on average, is valued above all else.

"No, genius." She rolled her eyes at him, "I'm saying that I don't have any money. There's no need for you to come over and search, because you won't find anything valuable and I am dirt poor. I suggest you turn right back around, go into the main village, right there, yea right there." She pointed at the Hokage tower." That guy is loaded. Rob him."

"Why would you think I would rob anyone...?" He asked, his voice trailing softly towards the end, as if extremely amused.

"Why are you here then?" Sakura asked.

"What if I'm here to kill you?" His voice stayed gentle.

Sakura froze.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXXxX

TBC

A/N: Some of my readers pm'd me and told me some stories they found on the web is extremely similar to mine. I took a look and...

Well I don't quite know what to feel now. Maybe except it fuelled my determination to make this the best story it could be.

Also, for those who wanted to read the other side of this story-Sakura'a diary on how she one day discovered her fiancee is cheating on her with Uchiha Sasuke-please read "Burnt by a Star". It's a parallel fic to this one.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I.

So the current situation in Sakura's mind:

1. There's a strange guy who just probed her mind and said he wanted to kill her.

2. He could be powerful. At least, more powerful than she is.

3. There is a slight possibility that he might be mentally challenged.

Sakura then decided to use that last factor in her favor to find a way to trick him into NOT killing her. Since she would like to stay alive to see cars run and planes fly. It's her goal, and she's determined to achieve it.

So she in the five seconds that she was given, she came up with a perfect answer.

"Do you, know who I am!?" She stood up and said in a proud manner. "Well, do you!?"

The guy sounded amused than ever. "I think so. But... do you know who you are?"

"Of course I do." Sakura said without hesitation. "I'm Haru.. I mean, Uchiha Sakura. I'm married to the Uchiha Sasuke. THE Uchiha Sasuke. Have you heard of him?"

The man didn't speak, and Sakura assumed he was so surprised and scared that he was afraid to say anything else that might offend her.

So she continued. "Uchiha Sasuke. Master of the... um, village that he owns. He also have an army. A militia! He is so feared by everyone that everybody shrinks at the sight of him, and they cower in fear...And they say that he could be immortal..."

At this point, the man kindly interrupted and asked, "then, pray tell, why did you marry him? Do you not fear him?"

Sakura waved her hand dismissively. "Don't interrupt when I'm talking! Of course I don't fear him. He... uh... loves... me? We slept together every night, what do you think? And uh... I'm friends with Naruto, so if he kills me, Naruto will be very mad. Do you know Naruto?"

The man paused a few moments before answering. "Yes."

"There you go." Sakura said. "So if you kill me, Uchiha Sasuke might come and kill you, and you don't want that, do you?"

She waited for him to speak. And after a full ten seconds, she could hear his voice. "No. I definitely don't want that."

"There's a good boy." Sakura said. "Do you know him?"

"Yes."

"Personally?"

"Yes."

"Well then. You should take me to him." She said, her head raised up high. "I want to talk to him."

"Why?"

"It's not for you to know. You're too young to understand marriage problems." Sakura told him, then asked, "So where is my husband?"

He answered smoothly, "He's in front of you."

"What!?" Sakura quickly looked around. But saw no one. She then walked a few steps sideways to see if there's anything behind the man, but there's nothing other than grass and tombs.

"Where?"

"He's right in front of you." The man repeated.

Sakura then focused in front, and then gasped. "Oh my god!"

He nodded.

She made a wailing sound, and then rushed to the tombstone in front of her and embraced it in her arms, "He's gone already? He... He was so young, and he left so suddenly. He... Oh my gosh, I'm so sad, I'm so sad."

Sasuke decided he had enough. He took off his straw hat, and Sakura give him a look before going back to hugging the stone. Then a few moments later, she snapped her head up and said, "you look familiar."

The man seemed more annoyed than amused. He lifted his head up and stared down at her, "Do I now."

In truth Sakura haven't seen Sasuke clearly in person, and all she could remember was his perfect body on top of Naruto. Now that she think back, he does have black hair and a extremely beautiful face.

The fuck.

Sakura doesn't know whether to run away or smile at him and explain everything-including her idiocy, but Sasuke stood in front of her with his eyes gaining down on her with an amused expression. He refused to speak first, and she really doesn't want to speak first either. So the result was, they're having a staring contest.

Sakura fail to recognize that Sasuke has a pair of legendary eyes, but by the time she did, she whimpered, "um... so..."

"So." He said after seeing her stuttering out many "so"s.

"So." Sakura quivered, and the only thing popped in her mind, "Have you seen Naruto lately?"

"Are you going to threaten me...because you think he could kill me?" Sasuke looked as if he's talking to a toddler.

"Of course not." She laughed drily, then turned the tables on him by acting mad, "Why didn't you tell me you were Uchiha Sasuke!?"

"I thought you would remember your own husband."

"About that." She pointed a finger to her head and said, "Yes, I, um. I lost my memory."

"Really." Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, yes." Sakura blinked several times. "Please forgive me. I am having such a bad memory. I... I.. don't remember the date, I don't remember my friends, and I don't remember... Um... Would you please turn off your eyes!"

Sasuke frowned.

"They're creeping me out!" She said, "you've already probed my mind once, what else do you want?"

Sasuke turned them off. He then leaned closer to Sakura, who stared at him. He paused for a moment before reaching out a hand and lifted her up from the ground. It's weird that he touched her and she didn't flinch. He frowned at that. Also the fact that she doesn't seem to be particularly afraid of him-other than the immediate physical threats. The Sakura he knew of was afraid of him on so many other levels. He sighed, and asked a sincere question from the pit of his stomach. "Sakura, why are you here?"

"To pay my respects, obviously." She rolled her eyes.

That was not what he was referring to, but he decided to play along. "To whom?"

"Tsunade-san." Sakura pointed.

"I thought you don't remember."

"I don't, much." Sakura replied. "Naruto told me about her. She was my mentor, and I thought I should come and pay my respects."

"All the way from Suna?" He turned his lips into a slight smile.

"How did you know." Sakura asked guardedly while pushing him away to stand still.

"I have my methods." He twitched a little when she pushed him away. But it went unnoticed by Sakura.

And they stood, staring at each other. Until Sakura cleared her throat and asked, "Um, so. I'm your wife."

"Yes."

Sakura then rethink over the entire situation, and it seemed that this guy isn't really going to kill her. So she relaxed a little, but there has been a question that has been bothering her for a long time. So she couldn't resist.

"Sasuke?"

"Yes."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Mhmm."

"So, hypothetically, if Naruto was a girl, and she was like... really hot, would you marry her instead of me?"

"..."

II.

It was extremely faint-yes it was, but Naruto can sense it. His eyes opened wide the moment he sensed him stepping into the bounds of Konoha. Naruto have such a good idea what is the bastard here for, yet he cannot do anything about it. Legally, Sakura belonged to him.

He followed Sasuke's chakra as closely as he could. That bastard has hid his chakra so well that he had to pinpoint with every ounce of his focus. Even then he isn't exactly sure he's here. When he arrived at the Konoha Cemetery, he was right. Uchiha Sasuke is standing behind some tree, hiding himself from the public view.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto glared at him after jumping right in front of him. But then immediately widened his eyes, "Sasuke, do you want to propose a truth and come back and live in Konoha?"

Sasuke stared at him passively.

"I guess now." The blond haired boy grumbled. "Tell me what you're here for."

Sasuke opened up his cloak, revealing the unconscious pink haired girl in his arms.

Naruto yelled, "No! Give her back!"

Sasuke said in a matter of fact way, "She's my wife."

"We all know how that shit went down, Sasuke." Naruto glared harder. "You forced her into marrying you!"

"I seem to remember it was voluntary." Sasuke's eyes narrowed at him.

"Why did you let her go, then?" Naruto asked, "She escaped from you. There is no way in hell I'm letting you take her away again."

Sasuke laughed, "Naruto, by the time I finish this sentence, I would be out of Konoha and at the border of Ame. Despite how fast you think you might be, you can't catch up to me now."

Naruto cursed as the figure in front of him popped up with the accompany of smoke.

III.

Uchiha Sasuke is a tortured soul.

The moment he was born, there were crows hovering above his roof, screaming and croaking his fate, as if he were born to be doomed.

The clan itself was meant to be a cursed clan, and he as the last successor alive, meant to live a life of either power, or torture.

It's just in his nature that he lived through both.

There were a lot of stories and speculations around him and his existence. The most famous one of all is that he holds a pair of ominous eyes that can see through all things. Lies, truth, personality, or human nature. He has eyes so powerful that he can stretch a second of the real time into 72 hours of painful, red, torture. He has eyes so powerful that he could lay the world at his feet and stomp on it.

The second most famous rumour, then, is that he has book, a manual that is supposbly to be the secret to ever lasting life. It contains the steps to a very powerful and dangerous jutsu, that allows one to transfer one's soul from one body to the next. This was proven true when Orochimaru transferred his body from one point to another, and also the ressurection jutsu that created the fourth war.

With these two, it's suffice to say that Uchiha Itachi is the most powerful man in the world.

But wait-there's another man. The son of the Fourth Hokage. The boy who lived with the nine-tails in his body all these time. The boy whose blood and pains shed within the war in an attempt to bring the Uchiha back into his home village.

It's very ironic, then, that those two were born to be friends, but destined to be enemies.

Uchiha Sasuke has no interest in ruling over the world. He has no interesting in uniting all villages. But what he has interest in, however, is the systematic elimination of everybody in Konoha. And he almost succeeded. But Naruto was there to stop him. Yes. Naruto was there, because Naruto firmly believe in the diplomacy and peace that Kakashi and Jiraiya taught him, growing up. He tried countless times to preach this to Sasuke, however, he was passively ignorant. Sasuke did not care for peace, he did not care for love or for happiness.

You see, if someone as messed up as he has the power to crush everything in sight, he does not go for the light.

It's futile, to compare the pains of these two boys. Neither suffered more than the other, neither suffered less. With Naruto, he still holds faith in humanity because he believe. He believe that people are meant to be forgiven, no matter their crime. He believe love could conquer over hatred, and love could cure away all pains.

Sasuke believes that pain is a natural cause in life. Pain is put in place to remind people that they're still alive. There is nothing left for him except for endless suffering, so he is going to make damn sure that everybody else is also going to suffer along with him.

This was the basis of their interaction, and over the course of six years, those two fought countless battles, but never one that would end one over the other. Naruto because he did not want to kill his friend. Sasuke because he still want Naruto around when he kills more Konoha citizens.

But it's inevitable. The battle between them. There will be a winner, and there will be a loser. That will determine the fate of this society, and that will determine the fate of villages and its citizens.

By the end of this story, that fate will come, and throughout, we will walk over step by step on how that fate turns and results into the way it became.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

TBC

A/N: After debating countless times how I should portray Sasuke, I decided not to make him stoic. Rather, I will write him similar to a charismatic, calculating, and manipulative male protagonist. He will be stoic sometimes, of course.

A rough calculation of this story is that it will probably span 50 chapters.

I'm working a new job and moving these days, so updates might be slow.

PS: The paralleled universe of this story is being written as "Burnt by a Star".


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I.

Sakura woke up by a campfire.

She was leaning up against a tree trunk with a cloak on her. She blinked a few times to adjust her eyes to the bright fire and the figure sitting around two meters away from her. She first rubbed her eyes, then looked down at the cloak. Her mind went blank as that familiar feeling of the material against her fingers. It's mulberry silk-the finest silk available. It is durable, soft, and incredible enduring. The inseam and lining are made from cashmere and cotton, so it could shield her from the cold. This cloak is large enough to wrap two people around-how many silk worms did he kill just to have this made? This guys must be ... loaded.

She knew this because her grandmother have a set of mulberry silk sheets, and she rarely saw them in daylight. But whenever she did, she would be amazed at the soft texture of the sheets themselves. She quickly gathered the cloak together and folded it into a nice rectangle and laid it on her laps. After that, she looked towards Uchiha Sasuke and said, "I'm hungry."

He showed no indication of hearing her, instead he stared intently into the fire.

She bit her lips and examined him. She knew that she was supposed to be his wife, but this world in incredibly complicated. She thought that since she's going back in time to an era that wasn't so advanced (in her opinion), she would thrive here. But apparently her knowledge of the modern world did crap to what she was doing here. And this guy-this guys she barely knew, suddenly barged into her life and took her away. In this world, she couldn't really rely on anyone, since the people she trusts are mostly dead.

So many questions danced around in her head. What was their relationship like? What was she like? Did she fear him? Or was she feared by everyone else?

Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke.

The name caused her to toss and turn at night, the name that broke a hole in her heart. The name that pierced through her consciousness and dignity, the name that broke her psyche and made her jump through time hoops into this world. The name that everybody knew but feared. What kind of messed up psycho he was back in her world, she knew. But what kind of insane madman he is now, she doesn't. Is he going to kill her?

She used to hold this naive fantasy how romantic heroes really can't kill women or children. If someone looked the part, then he must be morally ethical. She realized though, that for someone to look so incredibly handsome and beautiful, he or she would either be really stupid, or really clever. She has the feeling that Uchiha Sasuke isn't the previous.

Sakura sighed, and leaned her head back against the tree. She was trying desperately to remember her own world and everything she knew about everyone from there. She remembered that in her world, the Uchiha family are one of the most prominent ones in Konoha City. They held a massive empire in trades and stocks, meanwhile they have the largest dealing in firearms. The underground was mostly run by his brother, who was married and have a daughter. The stocks are the company itself is being run by Uchiha Sasuke.

Speaking of his brother...

"Is your brother still alive?" She asked.

This question just snapped Sasuke from his thoughts. He turned his head so quickly to glare at her that Sakura cowered a little in fear.

"I'm just asking." She muttered. "I knew his wife..."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and asked, "Well... What else do you know?"

"Not much else." She answered, her eyes averting his.

He stood up and walked directly in front of her while tilting his head and gazed down at her in an amused expression, "Sa, ku, ra. Did you hit your head against a rock and it dropped fifty percent of your IQ?"

Sakura bit her lips and buried her face against her knee. "Leave me alone, leave me alone..."

Sasuke grabbed onto her chin and stared right into her eyes.

Sakura's closed her eyes as tightly as she could, until Sasuke said, "there's no use tightening them. I couldn't see anything in your mind anyways. I wonder if my powers are fading away..."

She muttered, "if you have the ability to read minds, then you have a serious problem."

Sasuke tightened his grip, which Sakura winced in pain. She begin to shrink from him, to which he pinned her against the tree trunk, and trapped her body within him arms.

"You're my wife." He whispered, "mine, mine, mine, mine..."

Then he leaned down to kiss her.

Sakura stared at him when he did, and despite how he looked, he was actually quite innocent at intimate touches. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back, causing him to pull back and stare at her surprise.

She blinked at him, and quickly released him and found herself cursing at herself for falling into his charms and looks.

He narrowed his eyes at her, "Sakura, despite everything, I would never imagine you to be the unfaithful one."

Sakura glared at him right back, and said, "how ironic."

He brushed his lips to hers, and sighed against them. "Six years..."

"Pardon me?"

"Our marriage."

Sakura turned away while Sasuke rested his head against her neck, "Isn't it ironic... how after all these time... ah... you're the only one I could trust."

Sakura's memory took her back to just a month ago, when she found those two in the hotel bed. She turned around and left, never leaving any sliver of space for the either of them to explain. She saw how Sasuke looked at her, as if she's trash, as if she's useless, which she probably is. That look if indignation she could never forget, not only because it burnt into her brain, also because it made her felt ashamed-she is useless. She is, she is. Now in this world, she is even more useless. She doesn't know anything or anyone, and she doesn't have the guts to tell Uchiha Sasuke just what an asshole he is, and her plans and imagination of slapping him on the face seemed so far fetched it's laughable.

"Sasuke." She whispered.

He lifted his head up to look at her, and at the moment, he felt as if she was her old self-the old self that was before they were sixteen. The old self that would sacrifice herself for her.

"Sasuke, I have no one else in this world." She said clearly. "Are you going to let me go?"

"No." He didn't hesitate to say.

She wasn't surprised, because the next words out of her mouth are, "then I will follow you-to wherever you must go, or whatever you must do. But in exchange..."

Sasuke's expression was passive, but she could see the slight contempt in his eyes.

"... please take care of me." She finished.

"Explain." He said.

"Don't let me die." She whispered.

He chuckled softly. "Sakura, you have no idea... you have no idea..."

She closed her eyes to collect her emotions and memories. After a while she blinked and said, "I need food. I'm very hungry."

He turned around and collected a package that was sitting near the campfire. Inside was some chicken, some buns, and fresh fruits. She quickly gulped them down as fast as she could. She discovered Uchiha Sasuke looking at her with interest, to which she glared, "didn't you see anyone eat this fast before?"

"No." He replied in honesty. "Not in a long time."

She was amazed, "where do you live?"

"In Ame."

"Ame?" She pondered. "Is it a village like Konoha?"

"It's a village, but it's not like Konoha."

"How so?"

He thought for a while, then said, "well, for example, if one make a mistake, his or her fingers could get snapped off."

Sakura was so shocked she forgot to chew.

"It's a punishment. There are a variety of choices depending on the crime." He said.

Sakura felt like screaming. "That... twisted.."

"Twisted?" Sasuke tilted his head, "but Sakura, it's not-at all."

"Why!?" She yelled at him, "Everybody loves their fingers!"

"There must be punishments for mistakes." Sasuke's lips curved a little at her. "Of course not you. You're special."

She shuddered, because somehow that felt like a snake talking to a rat.

"Sasuke..." She tried to adjust to saying his name, "Were we... you know, were we ever... in love?"

He smiled at her and answered, "very."

II.

It felt as if she was travelling by starlight.

Sasuke was so fast-he could move meters in a fraction of a second. He held her close within her arms while she stared up into the sky.

She has never seen so many stars in her life.

The city she came from was so polluted it was impossible to even see the moon sometimes. Endless clouds covering up the city's sky, making it impossible to see natural light. But here, she could see each individual stars, and the milky way that stretched from one end of the sky to another. It was all moving so fast she felt as if she's travelling right beneath the stars, and when reaching her hands up, she could touch one.

She could hear a small chuckle coming from him, "Awake?"

Sakura nodded slightly, and leaned her head back against his chest. It felt so strong, so wide, as if everything depended on it alone.

This is entirely idiotic, she knew. It's completely insane to trust someone so blindly and so utterly in a world where she knew the nothing of. But when she turned her head over and try to think of someone she could trust, there was no one that comes to mind. In this world where shinobis are a huge part of everyday life, those who wields power will prevail, and those who does not will fail. Will Uchiha Sasuke ensure her safety? All she wanted, after all, was to stay alive.

"Here we are." He stopped gradually, but did not let go of her.

She clung to the fabric of his clothes, and looked beyond to the village ahead, and gawked.

If she had an idea of what an apocalyptic world looked like, this would be it.

It was not that this world is messy, but it was not clean either. Buildings were heavily secured with large locks and huge gates. There was no color variation, mostly everything was in black and white and gray. Soldiers roamed the streets, shinobis were everywhere, and there were more than one fights happening at the same time. People tearing each other's arms off and acted like it was nothing. There are no sights of children anywhere, nor women. Most females are also highly trained shinobis. Everybody bowed at Sasuke when he entered.

Sakura couldn't help but stared, and she was utterly surprised.

"This is your village?" She asked in surprise.

Sasuke frowned at her reaction, and she quickly added, "It's a very nice one. So... strong."

He snorted and pulled her ahead down towards the streets. Various places all around they could see black smith or shops for scrolls and seals. She looked around the place as if it was a very bad car crash. She couldn't look away, because everything is so orderly and oozes of violence at the same time.

"Are you preparing for a war?" She asked.

"War is always prominent." He replied. "No one is foolish enough to invade here."

Sakura averted the gaze of most people and quickly followed Sasuke to a huge traditional Japanese like mansion. She gawked at the thing, and Sasuke walked in directly. She followed.

"Uchiha-sama." A group of people knelt down in front of him.

Now Sakura is seriously gawking at this scene. She has only saw something like this in the movies or on TV. In her mind, human right existed, so there is no way something like this could've happened back in her her world. But knowing better than to say anything, she tightly shut her mouth and waited for Sasuke's further instructions.

He first decided what to do with her, "Send her back to her room, have Riku watch over her, the rest, report to me in the central hall..."

Before Sakura could say anything, she was ushered off into the east side of the castle like mansion, with a dark haired girl beside her. She turns to take a look at her supposed husband, he stride forward with a cool kind of confidence and coldness that chilled her right into her heart. Her mind went blank for a second, and when she returned back to reality she couldn't help but wonder how is it possible that she, a girl with no ability, landed him, a man who has the world within the grasp of his hands.

She shook her head, and followed Rika.

III.

Sakura sat at her room, looking over the things on her dressing table one by one. Most of the stuff are new, but some are old and cracked. She had a feeling she often throw things around in tantrums. These new bottles or jars must have cracked and was replaced. She found she has a very distinct and clear taste in finer things. Each item she fell in love with immediately, and they must be the same thing that her previous self also loved.

There was a frame on her dressing table that contained the picture of her youth. It was the photo of her, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Hatake Kakashi together. The photo must have taken more than ten years ago, for she looked barely in her teens. She has a small and timid smile, but her eyes are closed and her hands clasped together in that familiar way whenever she's happy. The boys beside her are glaring at each other, and it's very hard to imagine that either one of them would ever make that expression ever again. Her sensei, Hakate Kakashi, whom she only had the pleasure of meeting once in this world, looked annoyed but pleased at this team at the same time. She wondered if he still feels that way too, with two of his pupils betraying him and his village that he is in charge of.

She found herself strangely drawn to the possibility of Naruto's reaction to her betrayal. Would he feel sad? Would he feel mad? Would he chase her to the end of earth?

She looked around her room. It wasn't big, but it was very warm and comfortable. She knew she lived here... for a long time. There was the previous Sakura, sitting here at one point, staring up at the roof and the tiny window, wondering if anyone was out there to save her.

There was another door to her room, a door that opens up to a small green house. The green house was about three time the size of her room, with various herbs and flowers planted within. She knew that she must've cared greatly for this small green house, because everything was properly trimmed and fixed. Each brick wiped, and each counter waxed. The soils are rich and fertile, while the leaves thrived. She recognized these herbs, and they are arranged in the exact ways that she liked, seasonally and accordance to the symptom they treated.

To her surprise, there was a small corner reserved especially for moongrass. The transparent grass that needs great care to survive. Given the circumstances, it would be a great poison or it could save someone's life. It's very bad for someone if they consume this in small quantities consistently over time, yet it has the ability to stimulate someone's heart back to life if given a great quantity at once. It was her favorite herb because of it's transparent color, and the shine it gives off during moonlight.

After a week of being here, she was familiar with ever corner of this place, and felt like she has been here since forever.

Sakura imagined that she must've felt very trapped. Because this place is a prison. There are no other description for it. This isn't home; this isn't a place where she felt safe and secure. This is a place where she felt like she was being watched 24/7, and one wrong move that she makes, she's going to fall very hard.

"Uchiha-san, it's dinner time." Her servant told her.

Sakura brushed her hair straight, and looked into the mirror. She sees a frightened girl who was trying desperately to be strong, to survive. She firmly believes that Kami placed her here for a reason, and if she can't go back or thrive forward, she's going down with a bang.

"I'm coming." She said, her voice stable.

She changed her outfit into a easy to move in pants, and a comfortable shirt with a jacket that is warmer than it looks. She walked through the various hallways and arrived at the central hall. Everyday there's a grand meal made just for those two. The ones who actually bare the last name of great honor and dignity. Sakura suspect no one her even knew Sasuke's first name, for his last name was enough-and there is only one of his kind in this world.

He was already at the head of the table when she arrived. As usual, the table at least have more than ten dishes, and her eyes brightened up at the sight of them. She sat down after nodding at him, and grabbed her chopsticks right away.

Sasuke followed after her and did not mind her manners. He was never strict with anything when it comes to her, she discovered. It's impossible to tell though, whether he felt sorry or annoyed at her. She has been here a week, and the only time she could see him was during dinner. It seemed that no matter how busy he is, he always leave room to dine with her. She is understanding too, and she gobbles her food down as fast as she could, then she excuses herself.

This time, however, she was too curious to leave right away. She finished her main course and started toying with her desert, which is fresh shaved ice. From the white smoke that arises from her bowl she knows that there must be some sort of fridge system here. two spoons down and she stared at her husband with doe eyes.

He glanced at her and returned his eyes to the scroll lying in front of him, "What is it?"

Sakura looked around at his guards and several servants. Sasuke waved, and they all disappeared in a flash.

"Ahem." She coughed, and then asked him in a secretive voice, "Sasuke, why is it that we don't share a room?"

"You insisted upon it." He said calmly.

"Oh." Sakura nodded to herself. It makes sense, because she's very stubborn. Does that mean, then...

"We didn't have sex?" She asked incredulously.

Now, this is one of the many small differences between this Sakura and the previous one. This one lived in the twenty-first century, therefore these questions come as often as one per minute in a sex education class, or in a university gossip hallway. She did not feel ashamed, not will she ever do. But unlike her, Sasuke has never been faced with these kind of questions in his life. But being a leader of great composure, he kept his facade and gave her an annoyed look.

She did now know what she did wrong, and her face was more sincere than ever. Sasuke sighed and said, "Sakura, we've been married for six years."

She took it as a yes, and nodded. "That makes sense. Did we ever try for a child?"

A dangerous glint flashed within Sasuke's eyes but he retracted it almost immediately before asking back, "why do you ask?"

"I don't know." Sakura looked at her stomach. "I've always imagined I'd be pregnant within five years of marriage. I have always wanted a boy. A small boy that would learn medicine..."

"Medicine?" Sasuke continued to ask, "do you remember something now?"

"No." Sakura shook her head quickly, "I have always had basic knowledge of traditional herbs." Her grandmother drilled them in her, and as much as she despised it, some did stuck.

"I see." Sasuke said. He returned to his scroll, and Sakura peeked over, finding in dismay that she could barely read any kanji letters. She was a language major back in her world, and now she's practically illiterate.

He seemed to have sense this, because he raised an eyebrow, "you can't read?"

"I can!" Sakura quickly argued. "Some... just a little."

He looked as if Sakura came from mars, or at least, as shocked as he could look. He tossed his scroll in front of her, "read the first two lines."

She bit her lips and found that only a few characters she could recognize. Simple ones, such as "sky", or "mountain". She read them aloud, and substituting the ones she doesn't know with "blah."

"Enough, enough." Sasuke raised his hand. "I'm surprised that a knock on your head rendered you illiterate."

She glared at him. He grabbed onto the scroll waved his hand, "clean all this up."

Immediately servants emerged and start to gather up the dishes.

Sakura stood up, feeling frustrated and tired.

She knew this wasn't what she wanted. She can't do anything being couped up here in this place. However she knew that she must have some uses to him, because there is no way he would keep anything beside him that is useless.

"Uchiha Sasuke!" She yelled at his back, who stiffed a little before turning around with an expression of great annoyance.

"I want to leave." She said clearly.

He stared at her for a full minute before asking in mocking, "Where will you go?"

She bit her lips and said, "I will find a way. I will find a job. I will..."

He chuckled a few seconds before telling her, "Sakura, you are as weak as a piece of paper. Your mind and body are both extremely fragile, and yet you are extremely flamboyant. You are very lucky that you were not killed by the time I get to you. Do you realize how many enemies I have, and how many are willing to take you into custody, knowing you belong to me?"

She opened her mouth to argue, but nothing came out.

"Then you must be aware," He continued, "the consequences of your actions. If you step out of this mansion, knowing you wouldn't have my protection, I don't think you'd last a minute."

Sakura wanted to cry.

He gave her hope though, as he said, "But I am willing to give you a chance. A chance to succeed. a chance to continue to live in that deluded dream that you and Uzumaki shared. But you do remember of your oath. You must be loyal to me."

"I'll take it." She said, without hesitation.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

TBC

A/N: I am very sorry for the delay. There will be future delays due to life, unfortunately, but this story will continue, so rest assured.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I.

Sasuke did not let her go easily.

After feeding her a large meal the next day, he took her onto a tour.

Early in the morning, they walked along the dewy edges of this village, and they arrived at the center, where each soldiers are prepped for battle. They train fiercely and ruthlessly, and when Sasuke walked in, all of them stopped fighting and faced him.

Sasuke didn't say anything at first. He stared down at all of them, which caused them all to bow to him on one knee. Even after they bowed, Sasuke still didn't gave them premission to get up, so the entire battle hall went in an awkward silence as Uchiha Sasuke narrowed his eyes at each and every one of them.

After almost five minutes, he opened his mouth and uttered a, "Get up."

They all rose.

Sakura stared as she recognize there are faces of females here. But one thing they share in their eyes is the fact that they are utterly and completely obedient to Uchiha Sasuke. None of them could ever betray him because of who he is and what he is capable of. Sakura knew that he has the ability to read minds, but she did not know the circumstances around that. For example, if he needed to stare into the eye of his victim, or just a glance of him.

Everyone in here emits an aura that creeps Sakura out. They have this aura of wanting to kill, wanting to murder something that is beneath them. They all are killers that would slit throats of any living being without the batting of an eye. There is no room for sympathy here because sympathy is overrated. It is something that can't be afforded. Of course-Sakura, a girl who came from the modern world with the views of modern era-couldn't quite understand that.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and said, "I have an assignment for one of you."

Most of them raised their head up to stare at Sasuke, who tilted his head and said in a calm voice, "This one is not an ordinary task. It requires superb skills to blend in and collecting information. I would like at least four people. However, it is noted that whoever volunteers for this mission also volunteers themselves for a screening."

Less than half raised their hands.

He chuckled a little before facing Sakura and told her, "Pick four."

Sakura stared at him, "Pardon me?"

"Pick four." He repeated.

"Randomly?" She asked.

He nodded.

She picked the three men and one woman closest to them. Sasuke's lips curved a little, "these four will be surveiling you in Konoha. The assignment scroll is with Ryoku. Go ahead."

Before Sakura could get a good look at them, the four disappeared. She silently cursed at Sasuke, who turned around in a slight astonishment and asked, "Since when are you relying on your eyes for identification?"

"What else am I supposed to rely on?" Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Your senses. Or did you loose that too? So you really are crippled." Sasuke jumped from a fact to a question to a statement in less than three seconds, which Sakura glared him and said, "At least I don't need my mind reading abilities to ensure anyone around me is loyal to me."

"Because none around you are." He said nonchalantly before waving off to the rest of the nins. "Keep on practicing. Whoever stands on this week's battlefield will be heavily rewarded."

Sakura was led out of the huge hall, and the gates closed behind them.

She looked at the huge gates, and then asked, "Were they not supposed to come out?"

"Of course not." Sasuke replies.

"How are they going to eat and have fun?" Sakura asked again.

Sasuke simply said, "They are fed. Those who wins gains their freedom."

"Freedom of what? To work for you?" Sakura couldn't hold the sarcastic tone in her voice.

Sasuke scoffs, "What did you think was going to happen? Those who gain personal freedom must be stronger than I am."

"Is anyone?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke gave her a look that resembled the one when Sakura asked him if he has ever killed anyone.

He then said, "we're going to test your strength."

"What?" Sakura asked, horrified. "A test? I don't do well in tests."

Sasuke ignored her and kept going.

They arrived at another huge center, except this time there are more people in white coats and glasses doing research. They took Sakura's blood pressure, temperature, saliva samples, and eventually her strength. They told her to punch a cushion as hard as she could, and when she did, it waved a little and did no damage. Sasuke looked considerably surprised, for him. He narrowed his eyes at her and then said, "Your chakra..."

In truth, Sasuke has two choices to chose from. One is that he could choose to believe that Sakura really did loose all her chakra, or that he could believe she hid it so well that even he couldn't detect it. Of course Sasuke would never admit that, so he firmly believe that she did loose her chakra. Then it means she really is useless to have around. This could potentially be difficult, but then he made a decision.

A few moments later, Sakura saw Sasuke holding a vile of clear liquid potion in front of her.

"Drink it." He said.

Sakura stared. "What is it going to do?"

His eyes did not allow her to speak any further, so she quickly grabbing onto it and gulped it whole.

"It was poison." Sasuke said.

Sakura coughed and tried to choke it all back out. Sasuke stopped her. "It's already reabsorbed into your bloodstream. You need to come to me for a suppressant every month. Do you understand?"

She yelled at him, "Why are you doing this to me!?"

He raised an eyebrow, "Security."

"You think I would betray you?" Sakura screamed.

"Of course you will. You did once." He patted her her head affectionately, "Memories in which I have, and you forgot."

"It does not matter if I forgot of not-you should not have poisoned me!" Sakura screamed louder.

Sasuke glared at her, and she immediately shuts up.

He then said with a soft and affectionate voice, "Sakura-chan, this is a potion that will dissolve with my cure. You do not have to worry about it at all-in fact, it doesn't show any symptoms at all. You don't need to worry about this, as I will personally deliver the antidote to you every month."

"When do I get a cure!?" Sakura asked, less excited this time.

"When I deem it to be necessary." Sasuke said, giving her a light smile.

Sakura sincerely doesn't know what to say now. All she could do was to try to choke it out, but to no avail, because Sasuke is standing right beside her and glaring down at her. She quickly said, "since you are so untrusting, why do you want me to do this mission? Aren't you afraid that I will double cross you?"

"That's what the spies are for. I didn't say I don't trust you." He said, "then again, there is one thing I discovered about you that was different from the one previous..."

"Which is?" Sakura raised her eyebrow.

"You, are afraid of death." He said, lightly chuckling, "that just made everything so much easier."

Sakura sincerely cannot argue against that. Upon seeing Sasuke waling towards the entrance, she quickly walked behind him. When she took a look back at all those people in white coats and masks, it seemed that they are more robotic than actual living human beings. They did not look at her when she screamed, and none of them looked at Sasuke straight in the eye.

She cannot imagine what kind of horror they have been through under Sasuke's rule, but she has a feeling she's about to find out.

When they are on the streets, Sakura thought about her entire situation, then said, "Sasuke-sama?"

He was a bit astonished at the suffix, but he turned to her and made a single syllable sound, "Mhmm?"

"I want to know..." She phrased her voice very carefully, "...a bit about the me before."

He narrowed his eyes at her.

She quickly waved her arms, "Because you told me I'm going into Konoha, right? They are still very used to the me before. I don't know how should I act. Like, I should know some of my little quirks or habits so I don't break character... unintentionally. You don't want them to be suspicious of me, right?"

He turned back to the road straight ahead and walked without a sound.

She followed quietly, and they continued to walk in silent for around ten minutes until he begin. "You were a very... spirited soul."

She was a little startled, but immediately listened carefully.

"You were always cheerful, happy, positive, and above all, you possessed a very good grasp on medicine." He said.

Sakura rolled her eyes inside. Of course he was going to think this was the most important. "How did we get married?"

He paused a few moments before answering, "love."

She desperately wanted to know more on this subject, "What kind of love? Who loved whom? Did you love me?"

He gave her a look that indicate her to shut up.

She shrinks a little and pouted, "You're not giving me anything to work with here. Am I supposed to just roll with it when I go back? I don't think they are dumb enough to believe it."

Sasuke then decided. "So much has happened that I don't know where to start. Also there is no point in reminiscing if you do not remember. Memory is what shapes a person, and you have a chance to start over. Why would you want to remember?"

She silenced after that.

They went back to his residence, and before he stepped into the massive gates, he stilled and looked up at the air. She followed and there was nothing there. He then frowned and muttered, "it's early."

"What?" Sakura quickly asked.

He pushed the gates open, "There is a guest I would like you to meet, and he will accompany you for the most of your trip."

"What?" Sakura stared.

When they entered the huge yard, Sasuke spoke, "You're early."

And then a voice came, "Better early than late."

"Who are you talking to?" Sakura whispered to Sasuke. "I can't see anything..."

"Show yourself." Sasuke ordered.

And in astonishment, Sakura saw a bright orange and tall figure appearing in front of her. It takes in the appearance of a teenage boy with flaming hair and glowing eyes. He resembles a fox so much, right from the long and narrowed eyes to the whisker marks on his cheeks. He was also very beautiful, in an extreme feminine way. He emits this lazy and luxurious aura that made Sakura stare in awe.

"I'm Kurama." He said, tilting his head and chuckle at her, "I remember you-didn't you-"

"Kyuubi." Sasuke silenced him with a simple word.

"Fine, fine." Kurama raised his hand up and laughed, "I should not say anything. But it's simply too interesting. I heard she lost her memories? I can test if that's true." He then licked his lips and crossed his arms at Sakura.

"I already did." Sasuke said, "It's true. Now, I want you to follow her, and gave her chakra when she needs it. She's going to go back to Konoha and join Naruto."

Kurama smiled wider, "I understand."

Sakura stared, "Sasuke-sama, uh..."

"He won't hurt you." Sasuke said, "Listen to him on where you should go and what you should do. He has excellent instincts. However, trust yours more. I only want you to retrieve something, and then you are relieved of all your duty."

"What is it?"

"It's a book." He replied. "You will be given more information later. For now, go pack."

"You're giving me nothing to work with here." Sakura said in frustration. "You want me to spy, but I don't know what I'm spying for. You want me to go retrieve a book, but I don't even know what it would be. I really want you to at least give me some credit so I can..."

Sasuke's response was, "Well, you have a choice. Either go do this, or stay here forever with me..."

"I'll go pack," Sakura immediately ran into the residence and straight to her room.

II.

There really isn't anything important in her bundle. There are some toiletries and a change of cloth, along with a bit of money. Sakura spent some time identifying the amount and the kanji imprinted on top, then she decided that Sasuke must be very cheap.

She didn't even see Sasuke the next day, because Ryuku, his guard, told her, "Sasuke-sama is currently in a meeting. He told me to instruct you to go ahead with your mission."

She rolled her eyes, and quickly walked out of the gates. And when she did, she saw Kurama walking along side of her.

"Seriously." Kurama said, "are you really going to walk all the way?"

"I don't have any chakra." Sakura said, "I can only walk."

"Then we might take months." Kurama said in a contemptuous voice, "He didn't tell me you are completely useless."

Sakura then said, "I want to smash your head against that wall. For someone so pretty, you can really be annoying."

"It's something you get used to after a couple of centuries." Kurama laughed menacingly, "I could flick my finger at you and you would be dead."

"Why don't you?" Sakura asked while trying very hard not to be impressed with his age.

Kurama could tell that she was impressed, and he ignored that question and smiled, "Do you want some chakra now? I could give you some and you could move way faster than this."

"I don't know how to use it..." Sakura frowned.

"You used to, so you should know." Kurama contemplated, "even for those who lost their memory, there should be a muscle memory or a trigger or something..."

"Mhmm..." Sakura thought about it for a moment. It would be fun to play flash, so she nodded, "Alright, hit me with your best shot."

Kurama snorts, and then grabbed onto her hand for a few seconds.

During these few seconds, Sakura felt an enormous amount of energy suddenly rushes from her hand to her head and to her feet. She felt as if she was on a sugar high and couldn't stand still. Her feet started moving automatically and before she knew it, she was clutching her bag and her feet is making her jump very high up into the air. With each step she felt like a very large toad, jumping forward with incredible speed and height. She was at the edge of the village within a few steps, and as she jumped over the gates, she screamed so loud that it left a deafening trail for the guards. She continued to jump up when she reached a dense forest, with a man made narrow path. She tried very hard to stay on that path as she moves forward along with Kurama beside her. The kyuubi yelled, "Isn't it fun?"

Sakura yelled, "Yes!" And then turned her head to look at him-and she almost tripped because of the shop. Kurama turned into a fox-with nine tails and jumps along side her. He is glowing all over as he went slightly ahead, "Come on! I know your chakra isn't used up yet-give me your best shot!"

Taking a few seconds getting over the fact that he is literally a kyuubi, Sakura bit her lips and decided nothing in this world surprises her anymore. She jumped up as high as she could and moved on forward. She found that this body of hers is quite durable, and far superior from the one that she had.

After about twenty minutes of jumping she could feel her chakra wearing away slowly. She got the hang of it and could maneuver quite easily, "Are you sure we're going to the right direction!?" Sakura yelled.

"Yes! Just keep jumping!" Kyuubi yelled back, "Oh and by the way, I can't appear in front of people, so when we're in public, I will disappear!"

"When will that be?" Sakura was shocked.

"Right about-now!" Kyuubi said, and with a leap, he disappeared in thin air with a puff of smoke. Sakura cursed while feeling that she could only jump around two meters ahead now. She managed to squeezed out a few leaps before her eyes went wide-

Right in front of her, actually, on the side of the road, was a large rock. On the rock there was a leaf symbol imprinted on top. However that was not what was shocking. The shocking thing is-that there was a glass transparent jar-that is stuffed with money. Literally.

She recognize the green bills-because she has two of them in her pocket. Her eyes went into dollars signs immediately, and having came from the world of the 21th century, she quickly stumbled a few steps over and grabbed onto the jar.

"Oh my god." Sakura squealed. "Oh my god!"

She was bout to take another step, but a blade stopped her.

The blade belonged to a nin, actually, and it went right beside her neck. Even when there's a sword on her neck she did not forget about the money, as she grasped onto the jar tightly and already planning on how to spend them-she would like to open a snack shop.

"Haruno?!"

A disbelieving voice came from behind her, and immediately there was another blade on her neck, "Where is the manual? Tell me!"

Sakura stared into a blank eye. It does not have any pupils and it belonged to a exceptionally handsome young man with dark hair.

"What?" She could only utter.

"The manual. It makes sense that you would deliver it. Where is it?" He repeated coldly from his mouth.

"What manual? You must have the wrong person." Sakura clutched on her jar harder.

Neji did not waste any breath. "Search her."

So with the blades still on her neck, Sakura was patted down from top to bottom. They pulled out two pieces of bills, and that was the only paper on her.

"I told you I don't have it!" She yelled at him.

Neji snorted, "Rumour has it that you lost your memory. How did you know there was going to be an exchange?"

Now Sakura finally understood. There was an exchange going on, some sort of manual for this large jar of money. And she accidentally fell into this exchange without knowing about it. She bit her lips and replied calmly, "can you please remove these swords and knives, I am about to be injured. I think I'm bleeding."

Neji did not buy it. He narrowed his eyes, "Speak."

Sakura finally said, "I don't know anything about the exchange! I just walked by!"

"Why did you take the jar?" Neji chased after her sentence.

"Why wouldn't I? It's a jar. Full. Of. Cash!" Sakura yelled.

Neji coughed. "Even when there's so much?"

"I just know I'm going to be rich." Sakura replied.

"Hyuuga-san. She's obvious an idiot." The guy holding the sword on her neck spoke.

"I'm about to die from bleeding out!" Sakura screamed.

"Let her go." Neji said.

And they took the jar of cash with them. Sakura stared after it in sadness.

"Wait!" Sakura quickly yelled, "You can't leave me here, I'm bleeding!"

Neji sneered, "No you're not."

Sakura rubbed her finger on her neck, and as it turns out there weren't even a single drop of blood. However, there is a small indentation, and she pointed at it, "I am injured."

"We're not going to leave you anyways." An average looking nin spoke while holding out a rope, "We're taking you prisoner and back to Konoha. Uchiha Sakura."

Sakura didn't know whether to laugh or to cry, therefore she said the only thing on her mind. "I'm hungry-do you have any food?"

They ignored her and tied her hands up, dragging her back to Konoha.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

TBC

A/N: I knocked on my keyboard for a couple of hours and there is the result. I feel so bad for not updating this story and also wanting to procrastinate on my upcoming exam that I created this. This chapter seemed incredible boring to me. I don't know if you guys feel the same way. If you do, please contact me with suggestions or ideas. The length is also a subtle apology for not updating after so long.

As I am roughly drafting the rest of this story, I wanted to make a small... ok, Large, change.  
You guys know that the main male protagonist is Uchiha Sasuke. Right now, he is very evil. However, the one directly in contrast with him would be Naruto. It would be too easy, I think, to write about Naruto's character as he is very predictable. He is utterly and completely-good. He would be making very simple and obvious choices. So as I am writing the last part, I thought i should switch the Second Male Protagonist from Naruto to Neji. The latter has more complexity and layer within him. This means he is going to fill the role of Naruto, being an extremely good shinobi and the protector of the village. Naruto is still going to play a role, however, a slightly minor one.  
Please let me know what you think ASAP. The sooner I get a response the faster I pump out another chapter.

Lastly-and I ask this as a favor to all my loyal reviewers. Please, please, read my original story in Fiction press. com (no spaces). It's titled "Lilaea", and I worked very hard on it. It's about a girl travelling to the world of Greek myths and fell in love with a God. I will update all my stories, but the lack of reviews on that one made me have doubts on my writing in general. There is no pressure-but thank you for all those who will.

Thank you very much!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I.

When Sakura stepped foot into Konoha, she was escorted to her jail.

It was during the middle of the night, so no interrogation yet. She was tossed into a small cell with a wooden cot and a sheet. Her eyes spent some time adjusting to her environment, and two minutes later, Kurama appeared.

"Thank you so much." Sakura said sarcastically to him.

He shrugged, "It was the quickest way."

Sakura observed this glowing boy in front of her. One glance at him you could tell that he is obviously not human. He seemed like a delicately crafted statue that was lit on fire. His skin emits a lava like orange glow, and his eyes are light red without pupils. In truth Sakura is a bit scared of him, since she doesn't know anything about this being, or does she know anything about her situation at hand. But this being knows her, she's certain. Because his reaction and words showed it.

Then exactly what was she? This world is more complicated than she thought it would be, and she thought it was going to be ninjas fighting ninjas.

"So, you're the kyuubi." She said.

Kurama made a snorting sound while transforming to his fox form and brushing his tails with his paw and tongue.

"Aren't you supposed to be like... really powerful?" Sakura continued.

"Of course I am." He replied.

"Why do you take orders from Uchiha Sasuke?" Sakura asked in a hurry.

The kyuubi stopped what he was doing and stared right at her, then he chuckled a little before, "did you want me to turn against Uchiha? You thought I could be your ticket to freedom?"

Shamefully, that is exactly what Sakura had planned.

"Look at this." The kyuubi's paw brushed away the fur in front of his chest, and knocked on a strange metal that created a weird clashing sound.

"What is that?"

"It's a piece from Kusanagi." Kyuubi tapped on the black metal.

"Never heard of it." Sakura said.

"Right, you lost your memory." He scoffed, "Kusanagi is an imperial sword. This particular piece has been broken off by me-and unfortunately, it's what Uchiha used to bind me. He burnt this piece in his Amaterasu for seven days before piercing it through my clavicles-and it weakened me so significantly that I can't wreck havoc over the world and dominate it."

"Clavicles? You want to rule the world?" Sakura asked in surprise.

"Yes, killing more humans. That will be just wonderful." He said dryly.

Sakura coughed out a few chuckles before saying, "How did he defeat you?"

"His damned eyes." He whipped his tail around and covered himself with it, "I did not know he perfected them at that time."

"How long ago was this!?" Sakura gasped.

"A couple years ago." He waved his tail a little before yawning, "It was after the war. Naruto already set me free..."

Sakura is even more confused, "You were with Naruto?"

"Yeah." He yawned larger. "With him at least I could unleash my chakras, now with Uchiha I can't even use ten percent... Woman would you shut up? You're going to be interrogated in a few hours, why don't you go to sleep?"

Probably because I have a freaking nine tailed glowing fox beside me! Sakura screamed inside. She desperately wanted to pet him, but was afraid. If the kyuubi takes someone like Sasuke to control, Sakura might as well not anger him.

II.

The next morning, she was woken up by a splash of water.

She shuddered and looked around, and after finding out that a guy with drill holes inside his head said, "Get up, we're taking you to Yamanake."

"Ya... who?"

She tried to find Kurama, but he was no where in sight. She wondered if it was possible that Sasuke is here in Konoha already, watching her every move. Thinking of this, she straightened a little bit and walked along a little faster.

The interrogation unit was simple enough. In a large room with waved pattern on the wall contains five dunes. The creepy guy with holes on his head opened up one of the dunes and Sakura was pushed in. A man with long blond hair walked in ad frowned at her.

"Haruno-san." He said.

Sakura blinked and stared up at him. Is it resentment or regret she sees? She doesn't know, but it looks horrible. Like the feeling she gets when she smashed her grandmother's favorite vase.

He placed his head on her, and immediately she screamed.

This man is not gentle. His method was pushing and forcing his way into her mind, unlike Uchiha Sasuke's method where it slipped into her mind and glide around every corner. This man-this man pushed into her mind like a fish punching her face, and it violated every part of of her conscious. She could feel her privacy being stripped away like chunks. It continued like that for a few minutes, and every second hurt so bad it's maddening to her.

At last she stopped screaming when he retracted. She rolled her eyes over and fainted.

III.

They did not recover anything of hers with Sasuke. They didn't even see Uchiha Sasuke in her mind. They were not sure if it's because of Uchiha Sasuke's superb skills, or that she really did not conspire with the villain. It does not matter, because the Great Uzumaki Naruto agreed to talk to her and see if she reveals anything through conversation.

So when Sakura woke up in the hospital, she was faced with a blond and cherry face. He was very awkwardly peeling apples for her, and his face lit up to a large grin when she saw him, who quickly shoved the plate of apples in her face. "Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura blinked before glaring down at the ugliest pieces of apples she has ever seen. Her eyes shot up at the ridiculously happy blond haired boy, "What is going on? What happened to me?"

Naruto beamed, "You fainted. I am so sorry, but I promise you we won't use that thing on you again!"

She cracked a small smile before rubbing her forehead, "What exactly was going on? Did you find anything probing into my mind?"

Naruto's face fell a little, "Not really. I am sorry."

She sweat dropped, he was actually truthful. Her mind immediately went to Uchiha Sasuke, who must have known they were going to do this, so he made sure everything regarding him in her mind was blank. To hide from such a powerful intrusion, she once again begrudgingly admit Sasuke's power. But he is meant to have this much power, after all he is the main villain in this world. If not, who else?

"What are you guys trying to look for?" Sakura complained, "you think I have it?"

"Well." Naruto rolled her eyes around and then whispered. "Sakura, I'm going to tell you a secret, ok?"

Sakura nodded and listened.

"We're looking for a ... manual."

"A what?" Sakura asked while leaning in closer for reconfirmation.

"A manual." He repeated, then looked around to see if anyone was looking. Later Sakura would know it's completely bullshit since Naruto is able to sense chakras. He explained, "Technically, it's called 'the Uchiha Manuel'. So you know who has it-Yes, most likely Uchiha Sasuke. Because he has never revealed to us that he has it, we don't know for sure. But there are rumours that maybe it's not in the hands of Sasuke, but in the hands of other people. We received several 'tips' that someone has it, so we're looking around and making trades, just to make sure."

Sakura wanted to faint, "you probed my mind for a book? A fucking book?"

"It's not just any book!" Naruto quickly said.

She widened her eyes, "Why? Is it made from gold?"

Naruto made a face, "No, Sakura-chan! I wish! Then less people would be fighting it. Inside, however, contained the secret to...immortality."

"I...Immor what?" Sakura couldn't believe her ears.

"Immortality!"

Sakura raised her head and laughed. She laughed so hard that Naruto was dumbfounded. "Sa...Sakura-chan!"

The psyche of Haruno Sakura went like this: Immortality is such an over used theme in fiction back in her world, she could basically predict how this is all going to turn out. However, she also knows that it is not a good thing. Because of the normalized view that immortality also brought death or ill fates in fiction, she does not know why people would still be sane to achieve it. Immortality does not necessarily mean eternal youth, so the possibility of being shriveled to an insect sized wrinkly skin-type creature is also prevalent. Besides, actual immortality was never heard of in the 21st century, so she laughed herself to death when Naruto presented her with this idea.

He does not know all this, so he waited for her to calm down and explain.

At last she drank some water and exclaimed, "Immortality can't be real, Naruto."

He shook his head, "No, Sakura-chan. We witnessed it during the fourth world war."

She was stunned a little. Not because of his denial, but because of that there was actually a Fourth World War in this place. "What?"

"You don't remember." Naruto said, lowering his head, "that was the time when all the living had to unit together to fight against... the dead."

"The what now?" She quickly said, because if this world has zombies in reality, she would like to go back as soon as possible.

"The dead." Naruto emphasized. "There was a jutsu..something so powerful that it could summon up warriors from the dead. And Orochimaru, before he... disappeared, he already accomplished immortality. We've seen it. He was less than man, even less than a whole soul, but he... He was alive after all those years."

Sakura had goosebumps. She shivered in disgust.

"Yes, it's very weird." Naruto said, "We have a large team investigating into this already, but ever after that war, the secret came out that... that..."

"That?" Sakura urged.

"That the creator of this jutsu, is the ancestor of the Uchihas. Orochimaru has seen it, and he practiced it, and that's why he's immortal. We don't know if Sasuke has practiced it yet..."

"Yet?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Naruto said, "If he has it, of course he's going to use it. So we are facing the possibility that he might be immortal."

Sakura want to laugh.

"We tried to find some leads, but so far we found nothing useful. Kakashi-sensei is making this his first priority, you know. Trying to find it."

She rolled her eyes.

"Do you know where it is?" Naruto asked sincerely.

"No, and I don't really care." Sakura said, "I think a person should live his or life the fullest, and chasing his or her own happiness. Life is too short to drown yourself in misery, or get obsessed with something, so this book of immortality is complete bullshit."

"But a lot of people is searching it." Naruto said.

Sakura shook her head, "I don't know where it is. Honestly. Besides, at this state I'm in, I don't think I would know."

Naruto lowered his head, "I knew it. I knew you wouldn't have it."

"Any normal person would've guessed that I don't have such thing on me."

"But you might know the location of it." Naruto said.

She glared.

"Before you lost your memory." He finished quietly.

"Did you guys figure out where to put me yet?" She asked, feeling annoyed by the second.

Naruto gulped before carefully phrasing his words, "Yes, in fact..."

IV.

And that is how Sakura stood in front of the Hyuuga Compounds with her tiny luggage and tattered clothing. A guard came out and escorted in, and she was forced to kneel down in a giant hall with many men that has dark hair and blank eyes. She stared at them with curiosity, mainly because she has never seen anyone with no iris before. The entire thing is a bit creepy to Sakura, and she forced herself to calm down.

"You are allowed temporary residence here, for we will provide maximum security within these walls."

Sakura raised her head a little, and she realized Neji sat at the very front, with his face solemn and strict. She looked around again, and saw a row of lowered heads black haired Hyuugas. She quickly lowered her head too, and didn't quite know how to respond.

"Given the nature of your injury," Neji continued, "You are allowed to roam within these walls, however, one step out and you will be bound within your room until we see fit."

Sakura grumbled a sound.

"What was that?" Neji raised his eyebrow.

She quickly said, "Hyuuga-san, I was thinking, if I stay in here and do nothing, I am pretty much useless. I wish to be of help...within these walls of course. Perhaps I could clean, or boil water, or do some cooking..."

Neji waved it off, "No need. Just stay put."

"But I'll be bor-"

"That's enough, send her to her room." Neji pointed.

So Sakura was dragged out.

V.

The Hyuuga residence is actually quite large, with a lot of rooms and tons of space. There are various yards and training grounds, and a fresh garden at the very back with some common vegetables. The entire place is surrounded by a three meter tall wall that encased the place in. If she's ninja it would be easy enough to jump over, that is, until she saw the carefully concealed paper scroll seals taped to the inside of these walls. She threw a stone at it when she first wandered around her yard, and immediately it created a small combustion. A few second later, a Hyuuga came and looked around. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Sakura, who laughed in an awkward manner.

She then examined some other room that surrounds the place, and it's easy enough to find her way around. The kitchen is on the west side, the large hall is in the central, and the east contains mostly various residences for other Hyuugas. It seems her room is located in the deepest and farthest part of the residence, right in front of the large garden and field.

When she settled down in her room, the Kyuubi appeared, in his fox form. Sakura is used to seeing a glowing fox by now, so she sighed and asked, "Why are you not in your usual form?"

"It's easier to conceal my chakra this way. Not that I have much left." He rolled his eyes.

"Uchiha Sasuke really took a toll on you, huh?" Sakura asked in sympathy.

"No kidding." He sighed in self pity and recounted, "You know, when I was young, I was very powerful. When I was a couple centuries old, I was still very powerful. Sealed, but powerful. It's actually that those damn kids can't control their seals. Did you know with a wave of my tail I could literally sweep an entire village in ruins?"

"Whoa." Sakura clapped like a fangirl.

"Yeah." He nodded, "I was very..."

"You are so fuzzy." Sakura touched his fur, and despite it emitting some flames, it still is cool and comfortable to touch. The Kyuubi cringed, "I'm not used being touched at. If you want your hand bitten off, please continue."

Sakura retracted, "I thought you are bound to Uchiha. Do you give him the same attitude too?"

"Humph!" The fox turned away from her and looked around the room. "I'm going to sleep in your closet."

Sakura watched as it jumps inside her large closet and shut the doors. She looked around the room and her stomach grumbled. Standing up, her legs begin to automatically take her to the kitchen.

In truth, the place she visits most is the kitchen. Because she gets her food directly from it. She isn't allowed to join in large table meals, so she basically goes into the kitchen a little early and take some food on a plate buffet style. Ari-obasan, who worked in the kitchen, is more than willing to gave her a lot of food. When Ari first saw Sakura, she laughed and said, "look at you, all bones and no meat!"

This was not true, because Sakura is average weight. But she felt happy being cared about, so she took some buns while chatting up with her.

"How long have you worked here?" She asked while sitting on a corner stool and chewing.

"Thirty years or so." She replied while kneading dough. Sakura watched in amazement because she has hardly ever seen it being done in action before. In the modern days there's such thing called the bread maker, so whenever dough was needed, flour and milk was poured into the mixer. To actually see powered white flour and milk being turned into a fluffy and white compound with repeated pounding is an amazing thing in itself. Sakura was very impressed with everything Ari does, but at the same time she said, "I think I can make some dishes that you have never seen before."

"Really!" Ari exclaimed, "What kind of dishes?"

"Well, on the top of my head..." Sakura scraped her mind with modern dishes, "A really delicious desert called fried sticky rice, and some stir fry with special sauce."

"Well, let's see if you make it then!" Ari is enthusiastic about new recipes, so she pointed to a smaller table across from her own, "We have everything here, so you can make anything you want!"

Sakura nodded, "You do seem to have everything here, this is a very nice kitchen."

Compliments works on the chef, so Ari asked the rest of the kitchen members to clear some space for Sakura, who begin to recite fried sticky rice recipes in her head. It's not particular hard, just cut some sticky rice pieces in small cubes, wrap it around with think milky dough, and then soak them in egg, sugar, and cream mixture. After that dip it in a pot full of oil and deep fry it. As for the stir fry, she could just put a bunch of chopped vegetables inside the pan and add oil. Thinking of this, she begin to wash her hands in the large bowl beside her table. She grabbed a couple of eggs and took some dough and rolling pin from Ari, and went to retrieve some sticky dango rice from another kitchen staff. After mixing cream, egg, and sugar together, she took the rolling pin and begin to thin out pieces of the dough.

All went well until she saw the stove.

"What the hell is this?" She pointed.

"It's a stove." Ari said, "You haven't seen this before?"

No, she honestly had not.

It is composed from stone. It was basically a stone cube that hollowed out in the center, and inside there are fresh wood and cinders. Everything looked very primitive, and she didn't even know how to light it up. Apparently the stove is manual, and there isn't anything electrical in this household.

After Ari made a kitchen staff light the stove, Sakura placed a flat pan on top and dumped some oil in. The batch went in, and it created such a splash of oil Sakura had to jump a few steps back.

"Are you sure you know how to cook?" Ari asked in suspicion.

"Yes!" Sakura replied, while thinking she has seen her grandmother done it a thousand times.

"Well, it's burning." Ari pointed to her pan.

True enough, because the oil was too hot and the fire was too intense, all the sticky rice practically turned to charcoal. She immediately lift it all up and laid them out on a plate.

At least there are still some yellow-brownish blots on them. She thought.

The stir fry turned out to be a success, because even a monkey could do it. Stir fry veggies looked so good that Ari decided to serve it as dinner to the Hyuugas.

Sakura wasn't there at the time, and she didn't see this.

When everyone tried her stir fry, some people had enough manner to swallow it. Some people, on the other hand, coughed it out and said, "Why is this bitter?"

Word got to the kitchen, and Ari stared at the plate for a long time before realizing Sakura dumped all sorts of vegetable in, including the most disgusting vegetable of all - bitter melon. Also she forgot to add salt.

Neji raised his eyebrow and said, "Give her something else to do, other than poisoning our food."

When Sakura heard this, her defence was, "At least it was healthy. Bitter melons are known for lowering fevers."

"The problem was, none of us has a fever." Ari said.

So the kitchen staff all stared at Sakura as if she was an idiot.

After dinner, all staff begin to have their own dinner. They sit around the smaller hall and chatted happily about the latest rumour in this world.

"I heard our Hokage is getting married!" A young man, who worked as the post delivering for the family yelled. He is often the gossiper, for he is one of few servants who is allowed in and out without restriction.

"I heard he's getting married-to a man." An elder man said. He is the head of the cleaning crew.

"I heard he's taking a celibacy act, at least, before that evil bastard Uchiha Sasuke is dead." Ari said. She too, could come in and out all day because she purchase the family groceries.

"Talk about being a disappointment. What a wonderful guy our Hokage is! But he bred such a evil being." Someone shook their head in sympathy.

"I agree. Uchiha Sasuke should be killed immediately. Even though he was part of this village, he is now too horrible to be considered a proper shinobi. His morals are almost non existent."

"I heard he's so evil, even his henchmen couldn't stand the sight of him, so he had to wear a mask!"

"I actually heard from Komiko-chan that he's pretty good looking..." The young man who delivers letter whispered. Komiko-chan is an escort whom he is in love with.

Everybody stared at him in disbelief and disgust. "Are you insane? He must be so evil and ugly that even animals are afraid to go near him. If he's so pretty, why does he wear masks when he fights? Everyone knows who he is anyways."

"Well..."

"We should ask Sakura-chan. She has seen him, hasn't she?" Ari turned to Sakura and ask, "You used to be his teammate, and you were abducted by him, correct?"

Sakura could only say, "Um..."

Since there's a new member who joined their gossip, everybody ganged up on Sakura and crowded her with questions. "Is he ugly beyond compare? Is he evil? We heard he loves to torture people, is that true? Is he immortal? Does he really have a pair of eyes that is undefeatable? Does he use a sword to fight his battles? Is he gay?"

Sakura's head spun around as she answered every question with, "I really don't know, I don't remember much..."

After getting almost no information from her, everybody went back to their seats and back to eating. Soon the topic is switched from Sasuke to Gaara.

"I heard the young Kazekage is about to get married soon."

"I heard he's still picking his bride."

"Maybe he will pick our young miss!"

"But it will be sad to see Hinata-san leave Konoha forever."

"Right, but the Kazekage gotta get married sometimes. I heard he wants an heir really bad..."

Sakura swallowed as fast as possible while turning around to prevent herself from chocking to death.

While all these gossip is happening, there's another meeting in secret in the other side of the village.

"So it's decided then? You leave in three days-with her?" Kakashi asked the figure in the shadow. "Along with... Naruto?"

The figure nodded.

"Keep a close eye on her." Kakashi rubbed his forehead wearily. "I... don't know if she's trustworthy or not."

"I will."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

A/N: I want to say I am trying so hard to make this story interesting, but why is it so bland... I don't know.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I.

Sakura recently got some new information regarding this world and everyone around it. She begin to jot down useful information that would matter to her. So she made a list.

INFORMATION THAT POSSIBLY COULD NOT GET ME KILLED

1. It seems that in this world, everybody is a shinobi. Skills of a Ninja. So if I don't want to get killed, I better learn some jutsu.

2. Well, it seems like it's too late for me to start being a ninja. Apparently it's a skill that needs years of training.

3. Also I am trapped within the walls of Hyuuga forever. I still don't know why I am here.

4. Why is it that I don't know what am I supposed to steal or take? That bastard sent me here for nothing?

5. Regarding the book of immortality, if everyone firmly believe that it exist, it probably is.

6. But it is definitely not in the Hyuuga Household.

Up until here, Sakura looked over her list. She wrote it in English with a brush and ink. The kind that could only be seen in movies. Apparently in this world when she opens her mouth she could speak Japanese. But back in her own world, she predominately speaks English because... it's the way of the world.

So there is no need for anyone to read this list. Because nobody other than her could. But this list means she's getting nowhere. Seriously, without any power of any sort, she could only stay here as a sitting duck.

On another note, she is illustrating the basic designs for a automatic logger. Recently she's banned from kitchen duty, so the duty of splitting up logs falls on her. At first she was confident, because she has camped and went on summer vacations in the mountains, she was confident in her ability to split up a couple of logs.

Boy was she wrong.

It was entirely a different thing over here, because over here, she starts with a round log. It's usually the diameter from her forearm to the tip of her fingers. It takes a lot of her just to carry one onto a cart, let alone start chopping them to bits.

So when she saw the gigantic rounds of logs she just stared, and gulped, then asked very carefully, "Couldn't we just burn them?"

"Silly girl, they wouldn't fit!" Ari laughed while patted her on the back, "you said you're so good at it, be my guest!"

She left, leaving poor Sakura in the yard with a cart full of round logs and a small axe. Because she couldn't even lift up the bigger one. She tried chopping up logs over here, but the splinters almost blinded Hisaki, the old butler of the house, so he ordered Sakura to go somewhere else and chop them.

With some very sad Korean drama background music, she could act as a poor slave girl, dragging a cartful of logs to the edge of the compound, where the huge yard and the vegetable garden was.

Neji was practicing his ninjutsu there, when Sakura walked in on him. At first she was beyond terrified, because she has never seen a powerful move that could shake the walls. It was until Neji finished his basic training he turned to her and frowned. "What are you doing here?"

He stood there in complete white, and his hair tied loosely down his back with his cold eyes and breeze in the wind...

Sakura was a little mesmerized by his face, but she quickly shook her head and said, "that was pretty good."

Neji thought it was a contempt comment, because he knew she spent time with Uchiha Sasuke. So he made a single syllable "hm" from his nose and turned away.

The pink haired girl refused to be ignored. She cleared her throat and said, "It's pretty impressive to be chopping up dummies with your hand, but could you do it with... logs?!"

Neji turned around to look at her in confusion.

"Here." Sakura lifted the logs from her cart and carried them and lined them up in a single file row in front of Neji. "Can you chop each of them in six pieces in one move?"

Honestly Neji practiced ninjutsu for battle and self defence. Such a strange request poses a challenge for him that he has never done before. He felt a little excited as he nodded and said, "I'll try."

"Eight Trigram Vacuum Palm!"

And to both of their surprise, the logs split into eight halves individually, leaving a pile of logs that is directly symmetrical to one anther in a perfect slicing motion. Sakura clapped her hand and jumped up and down, "Neji, you are so cool!"

He narrowed his eyes at her.

She quickly gathered the logs and put them in the cart while Neji suddenly said, "You don't have to do that, I'll have someone dispose it for you."

Sakura almost melted with affection. Awww, it turns out this head of the house is actually kind. He pities her when she does work that is beyond her ability. But the heck, if she doesn't return these logs none of them will have any food for dinner. So she turned and smiled at him, "Thank you so much, but I can do this!"

She then dragged the cart full of perfect sliced logs back to the kitchen while Neji stood in the yard contemplating over her behaviour.

When Ari saw the logs she was astonished.

"You weren't kidding when you said you are good at chopping firewood." She gasped.

Sakura had no humility. "Of course! Hahaha!"

"Ok, then from now on, you're in charge of this!" Ari clapped on Sakura's back.

"What?" Sakura blinked, "Uh, does the young master, I mean, Hyuuga-san, practice ninjutsu everyday?"

"Of course. Each morning." Ari blinked.

"Then let me be in charge! I am the master of fire!" Sakura said.

That day, when she was eating dinner, Neji went into her room.

He frowned upon the piece of paper scribbled with weird letters and symbols, then he looked over a book lying on Sakura's desk, and the cover reads, "HOW TO WRITE JAPANESE-CHILDREN'S EDITION".

He opened it, and saw the list of words Sakura tried to learn, which is the basic and the simplest symbols such as "people", "mountain", "one", "two", "three"...

Thus he determined, not only is she suffering from post-traumatic memory loss, she also became illiterate.

The next day when Neji went to for his morning routine, he saw Sakura waiting for him with another cart full of logs.

Before he spoke, Sakura said, "Neji-san, I know that you were awesome yesterday at chopping logs, but what about chopping them all at the same time!?"

She laid them down one by one, and Neji felt a little bad, having her doing all that. Sakura shook her head and said, "Let's see if you are powerful enough to do that."

He stood there and said, "If I do them all at once, the best way would be to... use gentle palm."

"Ok." She said.

Neji said to her, "you have to get behind me."

Little did he know he's going to say that many many times to her after.

She quickly scurried behind him while containing a few giggles.

He calmed down and held his chakra within himself, and when he opened his eyes, he sent a series of chakra waves across from his palms and and chopped all the logs into perfect pieces.

This took a bite out of chakra reserve, but he's happy that he has done it, so he smiled a little when Sakura clapped enthusiastically, "You are the best! Neji-san, not even Uchiha Sasuke can beat you!"

Neji raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember him?"

She shrugged while picking up the logs, "well, supposably I am married to him, but honestly I don't remember anything that has happened, and personally I think he's a bit scary and mean. So I don't really care about him."

Neji stood there and stared at her. He wasn't close to her when she was a child, but when they were all young, he remembered there was a group of girls always chasing around the stoic blacked haired boy. This girl was one of them, and she was so absolutely insistent upon marrying him she that she gave everything to him...

Then he was snapped back out of his memory when Sakura clumsily tried to pickup a bunch of logs at the same time but failed. He quickly walked up, "let me help you."

That was the moment when Neji upgraded from a punk ass cold bastard to a warm and affectionate while unicorn like creature in Sakura's eyes.

II.

Neji told everyone at the family meeting that he must go on a journey to the jounin Exam in the Kumogakure in representation of one of the four great family in Land of Fire. And to do this, he must bring a few people with him to make travelling easier, and also not to loose too much face when facing the Raikage.

He picked to bring the butler, a cook, a few henchmen, and also Naruto and Shikamaru. Although the last two technically isn't part of his family, but they were going to go to Kumo anyways, so they all might as well travel together.

He decided to deliver this news to the staffs in person, because they leave the day after tomorrow.

In the kitchen, Ari was praising Sakura from top to bottom. She told everyone how great Sakura is at chopping up logs, and how perfect the cuts were that all logs were practically the same size. There was no splinters at all and they stack together nicely. Sakura ate noodle soup while listening to Ari's praise. At last she said, "Sakura-chan, I think you're doing such a nice job that I should tell our young master just for the heck of it. I bet he will be so pleased with your progress, and also he won't think you're useless."

Sakura nodded while drinking soup, "yep yep." Then she thought about it, "He thinks I'm useless!?" She raised her voice and accused.

Ari laughed a little "Well not entirely, oh look here he comes."

Indeed here comes Neji with his white robe and black hair all flowing in the wind. It all romanticized itself in Sakura's mind, because forgave her, she has been without a man for too long. But through all these fantasizing, Neji walked close and opened his mouth. Ari cut him short and quickly dragged Sakura in front of him, "Neji-sama! Did you know, Sakura-chan is incredibly excellent with chopping up wood-"

Sakura had the sense to stop fantasizing and yelled, "Stop, stop stop-"

"-And she hauled back cart after cart of pieces of perfectly cut logs into the kitchen ever since last week, and I daresay we have enough wood for the winter!"

Sakura could literally see the colour on Neji's face turning from confusion, then astonishment, then annoyance, and finally anger. He turned to her and bit out, "you used my ninjutsu to chop firewood?"

Sakura quickly said, "because you're practicing anways, I just think it's convenient..."

"The way of a shinobi is not to do chores!" Neji scolded harshly.

She grumbled something similar to, "...it's not like we're at war..."

Neji breathed in and out to calm himself down, and then he turned to Ari and said, "Ari-san, we're going to travel to Kumogakure very soon. You need to pack, also Haruno, you're coming with us."

Then he turned around and walk directly back to his quarters without sparing another glance at the two of them.

"What's gotten into him?" Ari asked Sakura worriedly.

Sakura cleared her throat, "I think he's having a tantrum."

This reached Neji's ears, because he did not walk that far away yet. He pulsed a little before making walking briskly back while fuming.

III.

Sakura was packing that night around the room while the Kyuubi lie on her bed comfortably and eating a peeled peach that Sakura peeled especially for him. At first Sakura was reluctant, but Kyuubi sharpened his claws and opened his wide mouth. Sakura immediately picked up a knife and started peeling.

He has the funniest way of eating a peach. First he lick the entire thing before its juices drips on his furs, and then he put it within his paws and slowly such the juices bit by bit. Sakura craves peaches just by looking at him. However she couldn't only get one from the kitchen, it was not peach season.

She shoved some of her clothing into her small bundle, and decided to burn what she wrote. Except she kept her Japanese exercise book, she plans to continue on learning some Japanese so she wouldn't be illiterate.

"Kurama, I think my Japanese is getting better." Sakura said to him, "Look at these words, I can memorize them."

Kyuubi rolled his eyes while softly slapping away her hands holding her exercise book while inching closer to him. "Get away from me, I heard stupidity is infectious."

"I am not stupid!" Sakura insisted.

"Whatever." He said, "I would never understand why someone would chase Uchiha Sasuke so persistently."

"I chased him?" Sakura asked in surprised.

Kurama cleared his throat, "In a race. You used to love to train... running and fitness ... whatnot, against him."

"Oh." Sakura said, folding her book back and said, "I think this book is helping me a lot..."

"Where did you find it?"

"Beside Konoha Academy garbage bin."

"Woman, have you no shame?"

"... Why? Learning is a noble exercise in itself."

"Indeed it is." A deep voice appeared in front of them.

Uchiha Sasuke, in all his glory.

Sakura yelped and threw the book at him. He caught it and flipped through a couple of pages and chuckled at her writing. Then he raised his head and stared right at Kurama, "you're not needed here for now, leave."

The fox gulped down the entire peach and shrugged before going through the windows.

Sakura gasped before quickly scrambled off the bed and closed all windows and doors shut.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke tilted his eyebrow and asked.

Sakura quickly replied, "Are you crazy? Barging in here without a warning! They could've killed you!"

He chuckled, "they won't know."

She turned around and stared right at the stunningly beautiful man in black robe and a white silk belt tied on his waist. His entire aura emit a dangerous and dark kind of beauty, as if a single defying action could be the death of whoever dared to oppose him. He reminded Sakura of a dominant in a SM relationship, and she shuddered when she thought of that. She knew that Sasuke has the tendency to kill and torture people, and so she decided to play it very safe.

"Uchiha-sama." She whispered.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"I, um. Tried. But I can't find anything regarding that manual." She gulped before answering.

"I see. You haven't heard any rumours of it then?" Sasuke asked softly while walking towards her.

"Not a lot." She whispered, "Just the fact that it's a book of immortality... I think forever young... that think actually exists?"

Sasuke smiled a little before cornering her against a wall and twirled a strand of hair in between his fingers. "Tell me what you think about this... honestly."

Sakura thought for a few seconds before deciding that perhaps it really is better to tell the truth, "Well, I think.. I think immortality is just ... impossible. Also it's evil, so I wouldn't advise you to go for it."

"Why?" He asked with an interest.

Sakura felt a chill in her heart no matter when he played with her hair, "Well, I just think, immortality does not mean eternal youth. Would you still enjoy long life when you become a shriveled skin of a being?"

He tilted he head back and laughed.

Sakura wanted to tell him to be quiet, but is scared to, so she quickly looked around and hoped her room is sound proof.

"Sakura." He stopped laughing and ran his fingers through her hair, "Dear Sakura... you are not stupid."

"I am." Sakura admit it, because she could feel his breath on her face. And against life and death, she could not bring herself to fantasizing about this man, regardless of how handsome he is.

"There's something that guarantees eternal youth." He hugged her within his embrace while lowering one hand on her lower back and the other within her hair, "There's something... that proves to be effective against nature, against old age, and sickness."

"Wha...what is it?" She while burying her head against his shoulders.

"It's a spring. A fountain of youth, as you might say. But it wasn't born out of nature, it was created in a lab. There's only three vile of it, and Orochimaru used two of them. The third one was lost-but it resurfaced recently..."

He trailed off, and Sakura felt a chill up her spine, and she cleared her throat and asked, "Well...?"

His velvet like voice dripped into her ear, "Your job, is to get these two items."

She wants to faint.

Sasuke chuckled at her stiffed body, "Well?"

"You over estimate my ability, Uchiha-sama." She quivered.

"Why? You're a clever girl." He took her arm and folded her sleeve up gently and tapped on her forearm. "Look at this."

Sakura almost screamed, because there seems to be dark spots forming on the inside of her elbow. It looked like bruises, but without the green and redness.

Then the great Uchiha prodigy concluded, "It does not matter what your goal is, anyone could strive for it when your life is dependent on it. Use anything necessary to get that information, Sakura. Anything."

She almost cried, "but I'm leaving soon, we're going to Kumogakure."

He laughed before gently kissing her forehead, "why do you think these Konoha idiots venturing over there for?"

Sakura looked up in surprise, and he already disappeared.

She touched her forehead, and felt the warmth where his lips had been.

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A/N: There, some Sasuke action.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I.

On a bright and sunny afternoon, a group of people walked on the sunlit path of Konoha to Kumogakure. Some are travelling by foot, some a travelling by horse, and two of them is travelling within a carriage.

Sakura is one of the two, and currently she's facing Neji, the man in front of her dressed in a silk white robe. He closed his eyes and was meditating, but it must be considerably difficult because Naruto often poke through the small window and whisper in a not so loud voice, "Sakura-chan, do you feel alright?"

She has carriage sickness.

Figures, a girl who came from he world of cars and airplanes, suddenly she was forced to either walk, take a horse, or a carriage, and the last two seemed to bounce the living organs out of you, she was bound to not feel well. But she knew, the fact that not everyone could sit in a carriage. Only rich people. By tradition, even she isn't allowed to sit in here, but after being half dead in the bright sun and horse back, she was allowed inside.

Now Neji is faced with a girl who is sprawling around his carriage, and making sounds whenever there was a harsh bounce.

She chewed on a piece of coconut flavoured dessert, and felt a little better, but she still has the urge to vomit, so she swallowed her pains and tried as hard as she could not to deface his fancy carriage.

"I thought..." She begin, "you are a shinobi too. Why is it that you still have to go by carriage?"

Neji replied without opening his eyes, "Because I am going as the head of the Hyuugas, not as a shinobi."

"I see." She sighed, and with a small whimper, she folded herself up in a crouching position and straddles the corner seat with endless misery.

Now it would be indeed very inhumane if Neji saw this and wouldn't do anything. Fortunately, Neji isn't inhumane, so he cleared his throat and said, "There are some snacks..."

Her eyes sparkled while looking at his robe and their inner pockets.

"...By the drawer here." He finished, tapping a small hidden drawer beneath the window. Sakura quickly pulled it open and stared at all sorts of non-perishable food with delight. There are small dried pastries, some jerky and some nuts waiting for her. She quickly grabbed and handful and carefully wrapped them within a cloth while deciding what to eat first. Before she pops one into her mouth, her gaze switched to Neji and asked, "Um, Neji-sama, do you want some?"

He uttered a, "No", and looked away.

She ate with content.

At last, Shikamaru's voice rang from outside the window, "Hyuuga-san, there's a small town up ahead. We have been travelling for a day, I suggest we rest here."

"Approved." Neji said, and the team move forwards into the town itself.

"There's a small inn here." Shikamaru's voice rang again.

Sakura is the first one to bolt out from the carriage, while Hisaki the old butler scolded, "It is customary the most important person of status enters and exits first!"

Sakura widened her eyes and turned to Neji, who waved it off, "Doesn't matter."

She then looked smugly at Hisaki and was about to enter the inn, but froze on sight.

The inn had a huge banner illustrating their title. And despite it was in Japanese, she recognize the lettering. "Time-travelling Inn". In smaller caption, "we offer food so unique and modern like you've never tasted".

"Let's go in-" Naruto begin, but Sakura suddenly yelled with an intense emotion, "Not this one! Not this one!"

Hisaki stared at her, "what the heck is wrong with you? This one is the closest-"

"Another one, another one!" Sakura insisted.

All look at Neji, who frowned, but made a decision, "Let's find another one."

So they tour around the town, and back to the original inn. Sakura found out that all the inns-including the restaurants-has the name "time travel" in it. And they are separated by number, as in, "Time-travel Inn #1", "Time-travel Inn # 2"...

Everybody ignored her protests as they entered the inn, and faced with a very powdered and very beautiful fox-like middle aged woman. She has a fan on her and dressed in bright red silk robes. She batted her eyelashes at them and asked, "I'm Komiko, should we arrange some meals? How many rooms?"

Sakura stared at her and want to look away and puke, but fortunately someone distracted her because this particular someone's voice bellowed through the inn and went super excited as he spotted Naruto.

"Naruto!"

Naruto turned around and yelled, "Killer Bee!"

Killer Bee fisted bumped him, but then turned serious as he turned to Neji, "Hyuuga-san. I apologize for not having a prior notice. But we need to discuss some issues regarding... all this, before you arrive at Kumogakure."

Neji nodded, "Of course. Shall we do it after dinner?"

"Definitely." Killer Bee said, and nods at Shikamaru and Naruto, then his gaze turned to Sakura, who edged closer to Neji.

"Uchiha-san." He said with a little coldness.

Sakura honestly didn't know how to respond to that, so she coughed and cleared her throat, "Hey."

"Haruno recently lost her memory." Neji said simply, as if that sentence could make up for everything that has happened in the past. Exactly what has happened Sakura doesn't know much either, but she look at him with gratefully.

"Shall we order?" Naruto yelled, "Let's all have dinner together!"

"Great!" Killer Bee yelled, "Let me order the famous special grilled tender chicken! I'm the sponsor of this dish, you know. I tried many times to perfect it, and I believe I did. Let's all have a taste..."

They were all brought to a small table that could only fit 6 people. Sakura wondered how was it going to host all the staff, when Hisaki dragged on her sleeve, "Let's go, they might need to talk business."

Sakura glared at him while almost drooling at the though of tender and juice grilled chicken. She swallowed and tugged on Neji's robes again, who tossed out a "it's fine, let her stay here."

Hisaki and the rest of the staff left, while Sakura saw among Shikamaru, Naruto, Killer Bee, and Neji. The dishes were bought out one by one, and each of them extremely colorful and delicious. There was some stir fry mushroom, some sticky rice with pork, large oiled prawns, fish fillets, stewed strip meat, and of course the tender grilled chicken. It is indeed drilled to perfection, as it is brown and crisp on the outside, while white and juicy on the inside. Sakura imagined rows of chicken skewered on a large bonfire and slowly turning at the kitchen. She stared at the chicken without shame, and watched in delight as Neji cut her a large piece.

To prove her gratefulness, she peeled a large prawn and lay the meat within Neji's bowl.

Hyuugas are known for their curtsey. So he cleared his throat and said, "Thank you."

Sakura dug into her food without any regards for the guests, and also everybody on this table other than the two dark haired shinobi-does not care much for manners. They ate as they like and it was quite fun for a while-until they heard a conversation next to their table.

"Didn't you here? This happened like almost two month ago!"

"I wasn't here! Aw, man, I missed this!?"

That was two people on the next table, gossiping. They are men in their thirties, and dressed in coarse clothing. One look could tell they are not from a higher class in the hierarchy of things. They look like they make honest living out of various trades.

"Yeah, the most prominent family, Hyuugas, the head actually was about to get married!"

And at this point Sakura whipped her head around so hard that she glared at Neji-who actually leaned back a little.

And the gossip came again: "But the weirdest thing that has happened-the bride is of a incredibly rich family too-the Taira-rumour has it that they were descendants of royalty!"

"Of course I know that!"

"But the strangest thing! When the youngest daughter of that clan was travelling to our fire country, she was attacked!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

Sakura darted her eyes amusingly at Neji, who frowned his eyebrows together.

"That's just the saddest thing!"

By this time everybody at Neji's table stopped eating and looked sadly at Neji.

And the gossip continued.

"The weirdest thing then-the marriage group did not get attacked by bandits!"

"Oh?"

"They were attacked by assassins!"

"Wow!"

"Yes! Hyuuga Neji heard the news and immediately went to rescue his fiancee-but it was too late-"

"She was killed!?"

"No!"

"Then what the heck!?"

"Everyone was either killed or burnt-and the corpse of his fiancee was burnt to such a crisp that nobody was able to recognize her-expect from a jade pendent that she wore when she was little!"

Sakura lift her eyelid to stare at Neji again. Looks like this dude didn't even get to enjoy a first night with his bride before she's burnt to a crisp. Huh.

"This is just tragic!"

"I agree! But this is not the weirdest part!"

"Pray tell, what IS the weirdest part!?"

"It's-when they cleaned up after the incident, everyone did not escape the wrath of death. Well, everyone except for the bride's maid."

"Bridesmaid?"

"Not bridesmaid! Bride's maid! She's a girl that serves the bride of course, her personal servant. Everyone identified -except for that maid! They traced her back to the Taira family and they claimed that young girl was hired like a year ago, and she just -vanished! Out of thin air!"

"That Hyuuga Neji must be devastated!"

"Well, sort of. And you know, the Taira has another daughter..."

"I see what you mean, hehehehehe..."

Sakura slapped the table and yelled. "What the hell is this!? I want more shrimps!"

Everyone in the diner quiet and stared at her. They weren't scared of her per se, but looking at a group of shinobis at the table, none of them would dare to cause a ruckus.

And so a plate of shrimps was bought to their table. Sakura dragged it over and start peeling furiously. All of the fresh meat ended up in Neji's bow.

Nobody said anything as Neji ate them all.

II.

"So the hot springs is just that way, walk about five hundred meters, and when you get there, make sure to flip the sigh from "Available" to "In Use"." Komiko instructed Sakura.

Sakura nodded and asked, "out of curiosity, why is it that you named your inn Time Travelling?"

"Hahahaha!" She batted her eyelashes and whispered. "I can tell you, but you can't tell anyone."

Sakura nodded.

"Because we secretly run a brothel, and when you're in a brothel, you have no sense of time!"

Ok, that was it. Sakura gave her a very cold glare and then turned around and stomped to the hot spring.

She has never been to a natural one, and frankly she had some doubts over it's sanitary cleanliness. But she haven't properly had a bath in a long time, so she didn't gave it a second thought as she peeled off her clothes and jumped into the pool. She was quiet a good swimmer back in twenty-first century, and even though this place was tiny, at least she could play around in the waters. It was extremely comfortable, and she knows how wonderful the healing property of natural hot spring water is.

But this did not last long, since there was a shuffling among the bushes.

Sakura quickly threw a rock in there, "Who's there!? Who's peeking!?"

And Hyuuga Neji walked out in awkwardness.

Sakura stared, and even caught as a peeping tom, he still is tall and handsome.

He spoke, "You didn't flip the sign."

She cursed herself silently. And suddenly she felt a little devilish, so she acted cross and slowly standing up, "what are you doing here, why don't you leave?"

Neji glared at her, and his eyes widened as she begin to show her shoulders, then collar, then che-

"Hurry up!" Neji scolded before turning and walking off."

"Hahahaha!" Sakura laughed menacingly.

But soon she couldn't laugh anymore. Because she discovered-she didn't bring a change of clothes, and her current cloths were just soaked into the hotspring, and they are very wet.

Wearing wet clothes are better than no clothes.

So she shivered and shuddered out of the hotsprings while sprinting towards back into the inn.

On the way, she saw a young chunin walking on this path. She quickly ran up to him and yelled, "Can you take off all your clothes!?"

Her lips quivered and her teeth bared, which created such a disturbing image for that young chunin that he screamed and rolled his eyes-fainted.

Sakura widened her eyes, then decided it was not her fault, so she peeled his large jacket robe off and put it on herself and sprinted back to the inn.

III.

Sakura didn't sleep all night. For one, she's plotting on how she will survive in this world in the future. There is no hope for her since she really lack any skills whatsoever, and she can't defend herself against anybody. Even the weakest shinobi here can squish her into a pulp if he chooses to. Then she must have something else in her body-something else on her that ensures her survival.

What would that be? Other than her association with Uchiha Sasuke-which she deemed as more dangerous than beneficial-she has no other connection. Immediately she is faced with a dilemma, which is to whether betray Sasuke or not.

As harsh as Neji is, he does not seem to be the type which would kill innocence. But Sasuke is a complete different story. When Sakura is near him, she shivers all over and wanted to puke her guts out. Other than his pretty face which she appreciates a little, her memory of her past life linked together with his behaviour and she really... really... doesn't like him.

However, she believed that if she chooses, she will have the edge over Sasuke. Since the reason why Sasuke forced her to do this deed-and forced poison down her throat-is none other than the fact that he's desperate. He is so desperate that he must have a defenceless yet vital girl to help him retrieve it. From the information she gathered by observing various people around her, she gathered that they trust her immensely-but not to the point where they do so blindly. They are still weary of her, she knows. But at least they don't automatically put up their defences up when she's around, especially when she's proven time and time again that she is unable to muster up any chakra up at all.

Then this book-this manual of some kind-will gave the user immortality. From what she has gathered, everybody in the world wants it. She asked Naruto in secret what it does specifically, and he answered that it's a book that record the methods of how to elongate one's life-if that person is over the seventy-five years of age. If that person is quite young, practicing the jutsu in the book will definitely gave him eternal youth.

"Eternal youth?" Sakura was eating a bowl of white rice porridge when she asked skeptically. She has doubts on the issue of immortality in the beginning, and this sounds like a hoax-if it happened in the 21st century. "Why is it that everybody believe in shit like that?"

Naruto stared at her with a worried tone, "But Sakura-chan, it's true."

"Say what?" Sakura blinked at him.

"Well, before you lost your memory..." Naruto muttered, "Like, 5, 6 years ago, there was a war that lasted for a long time. And in shinobi's standards, it's a long time. Especially the damage was so immense, and our primary enemy was someone that used that book-the Uchiha book-to force fear into our hearts. He was supposed to be dead a long time ago, but we have no choice but to believe it really is him that created all the catastrophe."

Sakura was curious, "Who was that person and what did he do?"

Naruto replied, "His name was Uchiha Madara, and he demolished villages, killed thousands, and ultimately he murdered most of the Kages..."

Sakura went into deep thought.

So the concept of evil and immortality has taken in a literal meaning over here. There has been battles like this happened over at her world, but they ended when she was very young and she has yet to experience the hardship of war before she was bathed in peace and luxury. In her world everything was so modernized that people battled with minds-not physical bodies. Then it makes everything so much harder to deal with. She has no physical defence and she doubt her brain will actually amount to anything in this shinobi world. Thinking of this, she has decided the best way to survive is to root herself on something-something strong.

But the problem is here then. She can either choose Uchiha Sasuke, who has complete power over her-or Hyuuga Neji, who seemed to be nice enough. She doesn't know which one is stronger though, and she has an ill feeling that perhaps Sasuke is.

She was pulled out of her memory by the Hyuuga family butler Hisaki, who said to Neji, "Master, yesterday Aki-kun fainted on the side of the road with all his clothes gone. He woke up later with a cold and told us it was a female ghost with long and pink hair..."

Then Hisaki turned his head and stared right at Sakura. She glared back, "It wasn't me."

"Be as it may..." Hisaki decided to ignore her, and turned back to talking to Neji, "Master, we should be aware, some perverts are females too, and they chooses young and healthy males such as yourself to take advantage of."

Everyone else looked at Sakura funnily after that incident.

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A/N: Long time no see! I am ashamed of myself for not updating anything. But here is the next chapter. Hopefully this story will continue updating on a regular basis!


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